


Dragon's Edge

by Firewhisperer13



Series: How to Train Your Dragon Series [3]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons: Race to the Edge, F/M, Family, Fluff and Angst, Romance, Sequel, Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 41
Words: 278,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25430962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firewhisperer13/pseuds/Firewhisperer13
Summary: Three years after the end of the war with the Berserkers, Dagur the Deranged escapes from Outcast Island with a hunger for revenge against Hiccup, Reign, and the rest of the Dragon Riders. But Dagur's not the only thing out there, and as Hiccup and Reign take new steps into life, the Riders find a brand new island... with its own problems. All Rights Reserved, Dreamworks Animation Studios, 2015-2018.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Original Female Character(s)
Series: How to Train Your Dragon Series [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636735
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	1. (A/N): A Couple of Prefaces

Hello readers,

I have a couple of things I need to say before you start on this story. I know I initially said I wasn’t going to do this, and my _How to Train Your Dragon_ series was finished. But quarantine has given me a lot of time, so I figured why not.

**HOWEVER, THERE IS A CONDITION THAT COMES WITH THE RELEASE OF THIS STORY!!!**

The updates for this story are going to be infrequent once school starts up again and I am back on campus (writing this now, I am assuming my parents allowed me to study from home this upcoming semester), I won’t have as much time to update. To make up for this, I will release whole sections at a time (no official sections, but each season, ya know?).

I ask all of you to _please_ be patient with me. Updates will come out on the schedule I am able to maintain, but I can’t definitively say when that will be. You guys also have to be prepared for this story to go idle for a long time, and maybe even disappear altogether.

It’s important to note that comments asking when the next update will be cause more frustration than it does encourage writing. I cannot predict my life schedule, and as a result, constant asking about updates cannot be possible. The schedule will be irregular, and I ask you all just go with it and be patient with me.

Of course, I’m not discouraging your excitement and support. One comment saying “Please update” is totally fine, I just want to discourage a constant barrage from people, that’s all.

Now that that’s over, on to the second note.

This story is going to touch on some more sensitive topics. I don’t want to spoil anything, but mental health is going to be the thing that really ties a lot of it together. I just wanted to warn you all about that because I know that some of you are on the younger side. There’s nothing, you know, X Rated, just things that are a bit more on the mature side. I wanted to make this story more than just following the show with a few minor changes. You’ll see what I mean later on.

And the final note, just as important: the subtitles presented on Netflix tend to vary slightly from what the voiced dialogue is. While I understand this, it’s a lot easier for me to just read the subtitles than have to listen to what the characters are saying. So, some dialogue isn’t going to quite match the spoken words in the show.

With that said, enjoy the story!

-Firewhisperer13

P.S. Based on “section 1” alone, this is going to be a _very_ long book. So strap in for the long haul ;)


	2. Eye of the Beholder, Pt. 1 (Reign)

I tousled a bit of my hair as I followed closely behind Fishlegs and Meatlug, taking careful steps so I wouldn’t disturb the dragon and endanger the children on her back. Meatlug was docile, but when someone spooked her, she would destroy anything in her path. I listened carefully to Fishlegs’ lesson on the history of dragons on Berk, occasionally correcting him when he recalled an instance incorrectly. The children’s eyes were wide with wonder as he spoke, perhaps slightly in disbelief that this had all happened on their home island.

“…And if you look closely at the walls of the Great Hall, you’ll still see puncture marks where the Speed Stingers attacked.” The children gasped and muttered in awe. “Interesting fact about these dragons—“

The sound of wings flapping above us drew Fishlegs’ and my eyes to a large, black dragon circling us. A wide smile spread onto my face as the rider smiled down at me, then moved to try and land. At the same time, Stoick and Gobber emerged from the Great Hall.

“Oh! Oh, look, kids!” Fishlegs squealed. “We’re in luck. Here come two of Berk’s most famous heroes.”

“Ho, ho, heroes?” Stoick chuckled. “I’ve got some chiefing to do, but I suppose I could spare a moment—“

“Hiccup, and the amazing Toothless!”

The kids cheered as Hiccup landed, sliding off Toothless and making his way over to me. I placed my hands on his arms as he leaned down, bringing our lips together quickly.

“Did you find anything new?” He shook his head.

“Nothing, yet. I just wanted to come back really quick and say hello before heading back out again.” I shook my head, chuckling.

“Don’t wear him out.” I pointed at Toothless, who absentmindedly scratched something behind his ear plates.

“Yes, ma’am.” He mock saluted me before rushing back toward Toothless. I was about to resume my walk with Fishlegs, when something popped into my head.

“Hey, babe?” I called. He turned his head to look back at me. “Astrid’s still out there patrolling. Can you just check and make sure she’s okay?” His curious expression melted into a smile.

“Will do,” he agreed before taking off on Toothless again. Once he was out of earshot, Fishlegs dismissed his class for the day and turned to face me.

“So… nothing yet?” I scoffed and shook my head, waving my hand dismissively in his direction.

“Of course not. He’s Hiccup—he wants to go out and explore the world and find new dragons before settling down.”

“But—you’ve been together for three years!” he protested. “And you love each other, and we’ve all been expecting it!”

“Ah, I’m sure that makes him feel _so_ much better about it.” I reached over and smacked his arm. “Don’t let people bug him about proposing. It’ll happen when it happens, _if_ it happens.”

_This is Berk._

_Yeah, it’s been three whole years since the war with the Berserkers. And Berk has changed a lot. But then again, so have we. Snotlout works at the armory. Gobber gave him the title of ‘Official Weapons Tester’. The twins, to absolutely no one’s surprise, have dedicated their lives, to Loki—the god of pranks._

_Lucky us._

_And then there’s Fishlegs, who has really found his calling, teaching the children of Berk the history of dragons._

_Hiccup and I are still together, three years later. As we grew up, he became more of the romantic in the relationship, and we’re less hesitant about displaying affection for each other, but other than that, not much has changed between us._

_And I didn’t expect it to anytime soon._

Astrid remained eerily silent that night at dinner, picking at her food with a solemn look. I let it drag on for a while before setting my fork down and reaching out to tap her, getting her attention. Her eyes snapped up, wide an alarmed, as though she hadn’t noticed I was here until now.

“You wanna talk about what’s going on?” I asked gently. She sighed and laid down her utensil, then averted her gaze down.

“I, uh—I told Hiccup about joining the Berk guard today.” I settled back slightly.

“Oh…” My arms crossed against my chest. “I’d assume he didn’t take it well?” Her blonde hair tossed back and forth as she vigorously shook her head.

“He just seemed really… disappointed. I mean, think about it: we disbanded the Academy because we thought we didn’t need it anymore, everyone’s doing their own thing, including you… I think he just wishes things were the way they used to be.” I nodded slowly, absorbing every word she said.

“Yeah, I’ve kind of sensed that lately.” I brushed some of my uncontrollable mop from my eyes. “I really should be with him more. I think he’s been feeling a little abandoned ever since I started spending time at Fishlegs’ lessons.”

After a moment of thought, I pushed back my chair and stood.

“Do you mind if I try and go find him?” I asked, looking down at our unfinished food. She smiled and waved her hand.

“Go be with your boyfriend. He probably needs you now more than ever.”

Reassured, I made my way out the door and headed for Hiccup’s home. Stoick said he had only returned briefly to eat before leaving again, and after thanking him, I made my way around Berk. It wasn’t until well into the night I found him and Toothless in the arena, staring at the old targets we used in training. A pang dropped in my heart, and I took steps toward the two of them.

“Never knew you had a thing for the wall,” I chuckled, causing him to turn around. Typically, he would tease me back, but he didn’t even turn around. Sighing, I went up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, then rested my cheek against his back. “I know things have changed really quickly…”

His hands rested on mine as he let out a loud, drawn-out sigh.

“I just… things were great the way they were, right? Or was I the only one who liked all that?”

“No, we all definitely loved riding off and exploring the vast reaches of the archipelago, but… we’re not kids anymore, you know? We’ve got things we all have to do, responsibilities.”

“I know, I know.” He shook his head. “I’m being ridiculous.”

“Nope.” I used my arms to spin him around and face me. “You’re adjusting, just like the rest of us. We’ll all get used to this eventually, I promise.” Finally, a little smile worked its way onto his face, and he leaned down to kiss my forehead. “Now, go get some sleep, please. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I squeezed his hands again before pulling away.

“I love you,” he called out to me. I stopped in my tracks and turned around, hoping the shadows would hide my blush. That wasn’t the first time he’d said that to me, but it always made me turn bright red.

“I love you too, Hiccup.”

The next morning, I decided to take Shriek out on a flight. Hiccup was still asleep when we set out, and I decided to leave him. I’d told him to get some rest, but I had no way of knowing what time he’d listened to me. We did a few laps around the island until the sun came up, enjoying the breeze and peaceful silence. And it was good that happened, because the moment we landed back on Berk, chaos ensued. Hiccup almost immediately burst through my bedroom door, causing me to jump.

“Hiccup!” I took a breath, placing a hand over my chest in an attempt to calm myself down. “Great Odin’s ghost… what if I’d been changing?”

He shot me a look, and I shrugged.

“Fair point. What do you need?”

“It’s Johann.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. I’d never liked that guy, even now as an adult. Hiccup knew this, of course, so the fact he’d come to me now about something with him meant it was probably an emergency.

“Tuff and Ruff found him in the water and brought him here. He said Dagur… your brother, he’s escaped from prison.” I tried my best to hide the horror I felt, blood running cold.

“Oh gods…”

“He’s coming this way, too, looking for us.” I threw my arms up and slammed them against my sides.

“Well, that’s just wonderful, isn’t it?”

“He’s going to help us once he wakes up, but we have to go to the arena.”

We jumped up on our dragons and headed toward the arena. The others were already gathered there, staring at a map with several locations marked. They all turned their focus to Hiccup and I. Hiccup glanced at the large drawing for a moment, before turning to the rest of us and relaying the information.

“All we got out of Johann before he passed out was this: Dagur escaped from Outcast Island by commandeering his ship. He threw Johann overboard about here.” He pointed to the water just outside an island.

“So, what you’re saying is, Dagur could be anywhere by now.” Snotlout crossed his arms, matching his annoyed tone.

“Well, technically, yes.”

“Oh, great! Great, great, great. So that just leaves—I don’t know, let me think about this—the entire ocean to search! No, thank you.” I scoffed at Snotlout, shooting him a glare.

“Master Hiccup.” We turned our heads to see Johann heading in our direction, oddly unscathed.

“Johann, you’re awake.”

“And feeling much better. Thank you for asking. More importantly, I have more than a strong suspicion where our nefarious foe may be heading.” He gestured his arm outside the clouds that indicated the edge of the archipelago.

“Outside the archipelago?” I glanced at Hiccup warily. We’d never dared venture out there.

“No! Just inside the fog bank on our outer group of islands.”

“We’ve never been out there before,” I informed Johann, my voice slightly harsh.

“When Dagur commandeered my precious ship, he also came into possession of a very important map—one that leads to a graveyard of ships hidden in that fog bank.”

“Wow! That’s the first place I’d go,” Snotlout deadpanned.

“If I may be allowed to finish?”

“Johann, the last time we allowed you to finish, we ended up on Breakneck Bog. So, no.”

“Enough!” Hiccup glared at Snotlout a moment before focusing back on Johann. “What’s so special about the graveyard, and why would he go there?”

“Well, you see—“ Before Johann could go any further, I stuck my arm out to caution him.

“The short version, please.” His expression fell, unamused, and he cut right to the point.

“It’s where I store all my treasures and wares.”

Everyone stared at him and blinked, flabbergasted. There was no long, drawn out story with likely many fabricated details; no strange, far away island he once traveled to with exotic people that endangered his life. Just the explanation.

“Wow, concise, to the point. Who knew he had it in him?”

“Which reminds me of the first time I was labeled as ‘concise’! He was a young man, very ugly, I actually—“

“Johann,” Hiccup snapped, drawing him back to reality.

“Yes?”

“Focus. Is there anything else?” He drew his hands closer to his body slightly, appearing worried and fearful for effect.

“As a matter of fact, there is one ship you must avoid at all cost. It’s called… the Reaper.” While others gasped, my eyes wandered to Astrid. We both wore the same unimpressed expression, rolling our eyes at how jumpy the rest of our troupe could be. “Riddled with booby traps from stem to stern. Barely made it out with my life the only time I dared venture aboard. Oh, wow…” Hiccup looked up at his Night Fury, who cocked his head curiously.

“Okay, Toothless, let’s go.” He turned to the rest of us. “Unless, of course, any of you can make time out of your busy schedules to capture a dangerous maniac.” I smirked and placed a hand on my hip.

“A chance to lock my brother up again? Of course I’m in.” We winked at each other, and that set off the chain of the other Riders.

“If Reign’s in, I’m totally in,” Astrid smiled.

“I can take off lessons for today.”

The group got ready, securing our saddles on our dragons and meeting again at the arena. We hadn’t done this in a _long_ time, and I think it felt sort of weird to all of us at first. But, once we all started flying together, it felt natural again. I navigated Shriek toward Hiccup, smiling at each other like idiots.

“Seems like forever since we all flew as a group,” he remarked. I nodded, trying to think the last time this had happened. It really had been quite a while. “Let’s see how rusty they are. V- formation!” He stuck his arms up in a ‘V’, and I rolled my eyes as he made me fall into formation. “Not bad. Diamond formation.”

I scoffed and only took to the formation for a moment, then Shriek sped up to fly beside Toothless.

“Just like old times,” he chuckled. My heart warmed as I glanced at him. I hadn’t seen him smile this wide in a long time, despite my best efforts. I always wanted to make him happy, and to know there was an outside factor affecting all of this made me a little frantic. But, this smile, the joy he felt from flying with everyone… finally, he was sort of back to his old self.

“Five-thousand pounds of flaming muscle coming through!” I shook my head as Snotlout and Hookfang shot past us, attempting to lead the charge.

“Ever a class act.”

We arrived at the ship graveyard long after the sun had dipped below the sky. In fact, I was pretty sure it would be coming back up soon, but the adrenaline erased the tiredness of flying all night. Everyone seemed wide awake and completely alert, eyes darting around to patrol for my brother, or any other hostile creature.

“I knew it,” Hiccup muttered. “I knew there was more.”

“Some of these ships? I’ve never seen anything like them before.” We nodded at each other—a silent signal to keep our guards up.

“Okay, everybody fan out. If you see any trace of Dagur, send a signal.”

Everyone else spread out to do patrol, while Hiccup and I made our way over to one ship that stood mostly intact. There was a chance my brother would want to find whatever was on this ship, and if our suspicions served correct, there was no way we could let him get his hands on whatever it was. The sooner he got locked back up, the sooner my anxieties would disappear.

Unfortunately, as we circled the deck of the ship, I couldn’t spot any sort of movement, and the same results came up when we landed and searched the deck.

“We’ll find him, Reign,” he attempted to assure me.

“I just… don’t like the idea of him still out there, lying in wait for his next victim to innocently pass by.” He chuckled.

“You make him sound like some sort of animal.”

“There’s a difference?” He tried his best to suppress his laughter, but I felt the vibrations in his chest as I leaned my head against it.

The rest of the Riders landed not long after us, all without finding a trace of my brother.

“No sign of Dagur.” 

“Looks like we got here first.”

“Or too late,” I muttered. Hiccup nudged me slightly, and I cleared my throat, trying to put the pessimistic thoughts at bay.

“What’s the plan?” 

“We wait.”

“Wait—wait a minute. For how long? This fog really gives Meatlug the willies.”

“He has a point,” Astrid added. “We can’t wait around here forever.”

“We can’t just leave Johann’s treasure here, either,” he shot back. “He’ll steal them, and use the profits to build a new armada.”

“Not if we steal them first.” I glanced at Ruff and shrugged. She sort of had a point.

“That is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Tuff chastised in an over-dramatic fashion. “I hearby disown you!”

“Actually, you know what? I sort of like it,” I defended.

“Welcome back to the family.”

“Here’s the plan: we search the ships, gather up Johann’s treasure, and take it back to Berk. But keep your eyes open for Dagur,” Hiccup cautioned. “He could show up and any time.”

From below us, I heard a strange hissing noise. My brows crinkled, more confused than afraid.

“What is that?”

“Has Dagur’s voice changed?” Hiccup leaned down through a hole blasted in the side of the ship, but quickly whipped back around.

“Eels! Everybody, get to your dragons before they get spooked and take off!”

Unfortunately, before I could even take a step, the dragons—with the exception of Toothless—took off, leaving us without a way to escape. A giant eel suddenly jumped onto the deck, causing my heart to jump. Hiccup grabbed my hand and yanked me onto Toothless with him, who got low to the ground and started growling furiously.

“Calm down, bud. It’s only a few eels. Really big, screaming, mean eels.”

“Don’t let him bite it,” I warned. “You remember what happened last time.”

“Yeah, thanks for that, Reign.” I reached up and smacked him arm. “Sorry.” I watched as the eels began to wrap around the ship, and without thinking, swung myself off Toothless. “Reign!”

I rushed over to my friends and drew my sword and shield, readying myself to defend them. Unfortunately, the eels kept to their current ‘strategy’. The boat dipped suddenly, causing all of us to tumble and begin sliding down the wood. Snotlout grabbed onto a loose board, stopping himself from falling into the eels. 

“Fishlegs, grab my foot!” As we slid by, we all grabbed onto the foot of the person above us, leaving me dangling closest to the eels. My heart rate quickened as I drew my feet up to keep one of the eels from biting my feet off. “Oh, you ate a full breakfast. You ate everybody’s breakfast!”

“We’re gonna live!”

I panicked as I felt my grip loosen from Astrid’s, and I tumbled into the water, straight in the middle of the bed of eels. They began to close in on me, so I swung my sword wildly in an attempt to fend them off. Thankfully, just before they got to me, a plasma blast shot past my head, and I turned around to make out the blurry outline of Hiccup and Toothless. He reached his hand out, and the moment I gripped it, he yanked me out of the water, and we went to the ship with the rest of the group on it.

“Thanks, Hiccup.” Once we landed, he began to eye me furiously, clearly concerned I’d been injured somehow. I shook my head and placed a hand on his cheek, indicating I was okay.

“Pardon me, does anyone else think that Johann could have warned us about—I don’t know, the giant, screaming eels?”

“Snotlout, would you relax? The dragons will be back. In the meantime, we stick with the plan. We find Johann’s treasure, quietly.” His face contorted in anger, but walked away without another word. Hiccup sighed, shaking his head, then looked over toward the Reaper again.

“Why are you staring at that ship?” I asked cautiously

“Because I’m thinking of checking it out.”

“The Reaper? The ship Johann warned us about?” I tried to be the voice of reason I usually was to Hiccup.

“Exactly. A ship covered with booby traps from stem to stern. I’m thinking, what is in there they don’t want people to find?” I placed my hands on my hips as he turned around.

“Well, you know if you’re going, then I’m coming with you.” He raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure, Reign? I don’t want to put you in danger.” I smirked.

“And when has that ever stopped me before?”

Smiling, Hiccup helped me up onto Toothless, and we headed to the Reaper. Cautiously, we both stepped off his dragon, and I gripped my sword tightly as we made our way across the deck.

“This boat is definitely not from the archipelago. These carvings, the design on the sail—I’ve never seen anything like this.” I crouched down in front of the cages, running my fingers along it. “And this metal…”

Toothless began to sniff the cage furiously, causing me to go back on alert. I tried to peer in and see if something was cowering in the corner.

“Come on, bud. It’s just an empty cage.”

Just as those words left Hiccup’s mouth, a bird jumped out at us, causing Hiccup and I to cry out and fall back. I ended up flying back into his stomach, holding my sword out way in front of us, eyes slammed shut. I felt Hiccup’s hands move, gently resting in my mop of curls as I attempted to calm down.

“Okay, well, _now_ it’s an empty cage.” He grabbed one of my hands and helped me up. “You okay, love?” I nodded, shaking my head.

“That bird caught me off guard,” I grumbled. Hiccup kept our hands locked together as we made our way toward the door that would lead us below deck. Toothless backed up slightly, clearly sensing something we couldn’t.

“Come on, bud. Don’t you want to see what’s down below?” Toothless responded by growling and snarling. “All right. Fine.”

Despite my instincts, I wasn’t about to leave Hiccup to navigate down there on his own. He leaned down to open the trap door, when something wrapped around his leg and started to drag him toward the ocean. My adrenaline kicked in, and Toothless and I chased after him. I caught up just before he could go overboard and sliced the rope, grabbing onto his hands and digging my heels down to pull him up.

“Whoa! Okay. Nobody goes to this much trouble unless there’s something on this boat that they don’t want found.”

Hiccup managed to loosen the lock and pull it off, then yanked the door open and stared down into the blackness below. We squinted into the abyss, but couldn’t make anything out. Hiccup reached behind us and grabbed a stray lantern, which Toothless shot at to ignite. His eyes darted over to me.

“Watch your step, Reign.” I nodded.

“You, too.”

Hiccup descended the ladder first, eyes constantly scanning the environment. He’d just reached the bottom, when the sound of metal snapping causing my heart to stop. Quickly, I slid down the side of the ladder and swung around, staring at Hiccup with wide eyes. He appeared shockingly calm, and when my gaze drifted down, I noticed his metal leg had been the one caught in the trap. I placed my hand on my chest and sighed deep, relieved.

“One of the benefits of a metal leg, I suppose.” I crouched down and pried the trap open, allowing him to step out. I stuck my sword out in front of him, defending him from whatever could come down this hallway. A blue sort of light filtered in through windows as we stepped into the holding cells, the bars made of that strange, green metal. “Okay, let’s just take this nice and…”

Before Hiccup could finish, Toothless made his way over to one of the cages, sniffing furiously. Hiccup and I met eyes and shrugged, following him to see what he’d found. Toothless pressed his face against the cage, then let out a sad purr, lowering his head to the ground. I peered in, and my stomach dropped upon spotting a dragon skull.

“Toothless…” Hiccup moved the lantern around, revealing this hadn’t exactly been a place where people had been held captive. I reached out and squeezed Hiccup’s shoulder, trying to reassure him. “Dragon bones.” He knelt down and embraced his dragon. “I’m sorry you had to see this, bud.”

“Whoever commanded this ship was certainly no friend of dragons. Let’s get out of here.”

We made it about halfway down the hall, when a board creaked under Hiccup’s foot, and something clicked. My head whipped around just as a group of crossbows slammed down, ready to fire. Toothless wrapped his wing around the back half of Hiccup and I, while I swung my sword and shield to fend off the ones coming at us from the front.

“All right, come on, you two!” I shouted. “Let’s go!”

We sprinted the rest of the way as I kept an eye out, hitting away any arrows that attempted to pierce any of us. Hiccup pulled me around a corner, and after a moment of hesitation, we decided we were out of the line of fire. Our eyes scanned the new environment, resting on a door decorated with gold patterns.  
“Commander’s quarters,” Hiccup whispered. “Stay close.” We got close enough to the door to study it, but not so that we would set off any traps. “Okay, so here’s the plan—“

Before Hiccup could finish, Toothless fired a single plasma blast at the door, knocking it down.

“I like yours better.” He rhythmically snarled, imitating laughter.

I kept an eye out as we entered the quarters, trying to spot any traps poorly hidden. Our eyes rested on the same thing at the same time: the remains of the commander, body long rotted away, with a strange, cylindrical object in his one remaining, skeletal hand.

“What _is_ this thing?” I shrugged.

“Only one way to find out.” The two of us got closer, leaning down to examine it. “Whatever it is, if it’s on this ship, it’s no good for dragons.” I snapped my head up and looked Hiccup dead in his green eyes. “Which means we’re not leaving it here for my brother.” Our eyes levitated back to the object.

“So, which one of us…?”

Grimacing slightly, I reached down and flicked the arm off, fighting down the wave of nausea that caused. Carefully, I lifted the object from its pedestal, halting with my hands in midair to make sure no traps were suddenly going to come out from the walls. Thankfully, nothing happened.

“Huh. Well, that wasn’t too—“

Suddenly, an axe flew down, burying itself in the table. I quickly shot back, grabbing Hiccup with my free hand and yanking him out of the room.

“Giant axe! Toothless, run!”

Spikes shot up from the ground in the row of cages, blocking our path. Hiccup and I jumped up on Toothless’ back, who bounded over the spikes.

“Whoa!” Hiccup and I held our shields out, blocking incoming arrows as the three of us sprinted up the ladder and emerged into the sunlight. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to relax and catch our breath. Posed cockily in front of us was my brother, staring us down with such fire and determination, he must have thought he’d already won. Two men stood in front of one of the green cages, the rest of our friends trapped inside. Quickly, I hid the object behind my back and passed it to Hiccup, hoping my brother didn’t spot that.

“Hiccup! Reign! Did you miss me?” I rolled my eyes, scoffing. “’Cause I sure missed you. Every day for three years, I thought about you.” He stepped aside to reveal Astrid pressed against the bars of the cage, looking at us with wide eyes. I stood up straight and called out to her.

“Astrid!”

“And you, too, Mr. Night Fury.” I motioned for Hiccup to stay in place, then moved closer to the cage, staring at my friends locked inside.

“Sorry, Reign. He got the drop on us while we were searching—“

“Uh, quiet!” Dagur snapped. “Can’t you see my brother, sister, and I are having a moment.”

“You know I hate you, right?” I growled. “And we are definitely _not_ having a moment.”

“Oh, well, I was. Look at you, all growed up. Still rolling around with ol’ one leg over there?” My face crinkled in disgust. “Hmm? Hmm?”

“None of your business,” I snapped. “Dagur, what do you want?”

“Duh, he wants the jewels.” Once my eyes rested on Snotlout, my brows flew up in confusion. He had strange, blonde hair dangling in his face.

“He’s not getting my family’s jewels. No way! And I’ll protect them at all costs!” Tuff declared. “Also, what’s with the hair?”

“Ha! It’s royal hair, I’ll have you know.”

“Haven’t gotten rid of the Greek chorus, I see. Anyway, yes. I’ll take the jewels. His, too.” One of the men elbowed Ruff in the gut, causing her to spit out jewels.

“Watch it, pal!” He laughed in her face, so she spat one of the lingering jewels out, causing it to fly right down his throat.

“Oops, thought that was the guy. Never can tell with those two.” Dagur turned back to me, eyes menacing. “And I’ll also take whatever it is your _boyfriend_ is hiding behind his back.” Hiccup remained unmoving. “Come on, hand it over like a good boy.” My hands flew up in surrender as the men pointed their crossbows right at me. “Brothers share, you know.”

“Hiccup, no.” Despite my warning, he sighed and placed the cylinder in Dagur’s hands. Strangely, I noticed the guards didn’t lower their crossbows.

“You know you’re not going to get very far with that thing, right?”

“Oh, boy, here we go. Must we always do the same dance Hiccup, you and I?” He slung an arm around Hiccup’s shoulders. “Not that you’re not a fabulous dancer.” Toothless growled, causing the guards to shift their crossbows from me to him. Hiccup rushed to his dragon’s side and kneeled down next to him.

“Easy, bud, not yet.”

“That’s right, Mr. Night Fury. Today is not the day, but it’s coming! And soon. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’ve got people to see, an army to build, revenge to plot. Ooh, so much to do and so little time. Isn’t this exciting, Hiccup? You—You must have been so bored over the last three years.”

“Yeah, he’s got a point about that. Not enough explosions.” I glared at Tuff, shutting him up.

“Alas, my time here has come to an end. Farewell for now sister, brother. Until we meet again on the field of battle.”

He and his men slung their legs over the side of the ship, falling down onto the escape boat and heading to his ships farther off. The moment they were gone, Hiccup and I rushed to the cage, trying to find a way to open it. My eyes darted over to him, and I stopped.

“Hiccup, I can handle this. Go after him.”

“What are you waiting for?” Snotlout pushed. His eyes darted over all of us before he sighed.

“Are you guys sure you’ll be okay?”

“We’re fine! Go!”

With my reassurance, Hiccup climbed onto Toothless and took off toward Dagur. He hovered in the air, staring down at him as I tried to pry the cage open by any means possible. I’d been trying for quite a few minutes, when Astrid gaped, and the ship suddenly, violently lurched. I whipped around and my eyes widened in horror, spotting a huge hole in the boat that hadn’t been there before. Dagur must have launched a projectile from his ship. I began to yank harder on the cage, arms growing weak and hands rubbed raw, as the boat dipped further and further toward the ocean.

**_To be continued…_**


	3. Eye of the Beholder, Pt. 2 (Hiccup)

My eyes darted back and forth between Dagur’s ship and the sinking one full of my friends. Reign had told me not to worry about them, but their screams and begging told a different story. Not to mention that her stubbornness probably convinced her she had a better handle on the situation than she really did. As strong as Reign was, there was only so much she could do.

“Isn’t this exciting?” Dagur taunted, cackling from his ship. He held the device in one hand with a confident grip around it. “What will he choose, ladies and gentlemen? Saving his friends, or capturing his mortal enemy, his brother?”

As Dagur finished his rambling, a plan popped into my head. His ship wasn’t moving fast enough to go very far, I could probably still catch him if I went back and opened the cage. I landed on the part of the ship still sticking up.

“Hiccup!” I heard Reign call out, relieved.

“Move back from the door!” Once everyone was out of the way, Toothless and I jumped down, hanging onto the side of the boat. “Toothless, plasma blast!” He did as told, but the cage didn’t budge, instead only turning bright red before fading back into mint green.

“Dragon-proof bars? Ooh, fascinating!” Fishlegs marveled, forgetting, for a moment, that him getting out of the cage was the difference between life and death.

“Whoever built this ship really knew what they were doing.” The sinking ship suddenly lurched as more of it went under, throwing everyone to the side.

“Whoa! You know what would be more fascinating? Getting us out of here!” The ship lurched again, this time in the other direction, causing Fishlegs to slam against Snotlout. I ran up to the door of the cage and started to pull on it.

“Toothless, now!” He kept firing at the cage, but the door refused to budge. “We need more firepower. Guys, dragon calls.”

Everyone cupped their hands around their mouths and let out their dragon calls, attempting to call the spooked creatures back. Last we had seen them, it was dark. Now, the sunlight illuminated almost every crevice of the land. The longer we waited to get them out, the further away Dagur got.

Suddenly, a long, slithering creature shot up onto the top of the cage. I flinched and covered my face as it lunged in my direction, attempting to bite me. Toothless fired plasma blasts at it as I moved out of the way.

“Why’d it have to be eels?”

I tried my best to pull the door open as Toothless shot at the eels, scaring them off so they wouldn’t continue to attack. Unfortunately, he missed the ones below us, and I felt one of them latch onto my metal leg and start to pull.

“Toothless!” I cried, trying my best to shake the creature loose. Thankfully, Toothless fired a blast at the eel, scaring it off. “Thanks, bud.” I untied my leg and tried to use it to pry open the door of the cage. It budged a little bit, but I still couldn’t get it open.

“Uh, Hookfang, help us!” Snotlout cried, as though that would summon his dragon. “I’m important.”

“Shriek!” Reign slammed her shoulder against the door repeatedly, attempting to get it to swing open.

“Stormfly!”

“Barf, Belch, get your butts over here!” The ground slipped out beneath me as the ship listed completely vertical. I hung onto the bars of the cage, hoping my grip wouldn’t fail me.

“Toothless!” Toothless let out a call, and thankfully, the rest of the dragons descended. The weight of everyone pushed up against the door of the cage caused it to burst open. Reign did her best to hold everyone up, gripping the cage with her other hand. Tuff held my leg in his hands, trying to keep it away from the jumping eels. One by one, the dragons appeared, and the next person down the line dropped onto theirs. Just as the ship went down, we all took to the skies, stopping and hovering in the air to attempt and calm down.

“That was way too close,” Fishlegs gasped, eyes cast downward.

“Hiccup, what are we doing?” Reign asked, narrowing her green eyes at me.

“You guys go back to Berk. I’m going after Dagur. Whatever that cylinder-looking thing is, I know one thing for sure—it shouldn’t be in his hands.”

“Hiccup—“

Before Reign could finish her argument, I turned Toothless around and took off. I knew she’d insist on coming with me, but there really wasn’t a need. I knew exactly how I was going to do this, and if it all went as planned, it would take all of about two seconds to get it back from him. Sure enough, once I caught up with his ship, he just had the thing held in the air. Toothless swooped down, and I snatched the cylinder from his hands.

“Thank you kindly.”

Quickly, Toothless and I turned back around and headed toward Berk. I heard Dagur scream, and the second I glanced back, a barrage of arrows came shooting in our direction. Luckily, we managed to escape unscathed, and got back to Berk, where I passed the cylinder off to Gobber so he could figure it out. After a few minutes of watching him struggle, Reign made her way over to us. I smiled down at her and kissed the top of her head as she wrapped her arms around the crook of my elbow.

“Have you ever seen anything like this Dragon Eye before?” I asked Gobber.

“Dragon Eye? How do you know it’s called a Dragon Eye?” Tuffnut asked.

“Because I named it.”

“Whoa, whoa, aren’t we supposed to vote on stuff like that?” Snotlout protested.

“Fine. All in favor, say ‘Dragon Eye’.” Everyone but Snotlout spoke up, leaving him speechless for a moment.

“Just wanted to make sure we voted.” Reign shook her head in disappointment. Snotlout always had to interject himself into situations, even if he had nothing to do with it.

“Can you open it, Gobber?” I asked, getting back to the matter at hand.

“Ha ha! Can I open it?” he scoffed, still attempting to twist the Dragon Eye. “I once opened a 500-year-old giant clam at the bottom of the oceans with my bare hook.” Reign raised an eyebrow at Gobber, not believing his story. “Can I open it? Ha! I think it’s going to be— “ Something clicked inside the Dragon Eye. “Huh. Aha.”

A dart suddenly shot out from the hole in the front of it, digging into Tuffnut’s chest. Everyone stared, wide-eyed, including Tuff.

“Ugh. What is that? That looks like a— “

Before he could finish, he collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. We all looked to each other, unsure of what to do in this situation. The Dragon Eye, much like the ship it had been found on, had some traps.

“Well, that was… something… maybe.” Gobber continued to yank and twist the Dragon Eye, but I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea anymore.

“Gobber, maybe you shouldn’t—“

“Trust me, I—“

He yanked on the other end of it, and some green gas came spilling out. Reign yanked me back out of the smithy, so we wouldn’t be affected by the gas at all. Tuffnut came to right at that moment, standing up and looking around at those by him.

“It’s all right, I’m okay. I got hit with something, but now—“

He inhaled deeply, taking in a large amount of the cloud of gas, and just as quickly as he stood, he collapsed back down again, spazzing and twitching viciously. Once the gas had dispelled, we all stepped back in and stared down at him.

“Yeah, I’m thinking we should probably go get Gothi.”

Gobber lifted Tuff up, and we all followed them to Gothi’s hut. Reign and I leaned against once of the railings that made sure no one would plummet and die. She reached down and squeezed my hand, sensing I still had the Dragon Eye on my mind. That thing was just as dangerous as the ship, and we had it here on Berk. It was a good thing, at the very least, that I’d gotten it back from Dagur, and I knew Reign was thinking the same thing. Then again, she didn’t trust her brother as far as she could throw him.

Gothi shoved some elixir down Tuffnut’s throat, forcing him to drink. He stopped twitching, finally, and seemed to get back to his normal self.

“Aah. My teeth are itchy,” he whined. “My teeth are _itchy_.” Gothi scratched something into the patch of dirt she had up at her hut so that she could communicate.

“She says that’s a good sign,” Gobber translated. “Means it’s working.” I let go of Reign’s hand and approached the old healer.

“Thank you, Gothi. We really appreciate this.”

Despite what happened earlier, Gobber continued to strike the Dragon Eye, drawing Gothi’s attention. She spotted something on the side of it, and her eyes went wide, before she completely turned away, not allowing us to see her expression. Reign crossed the platform and crouched lower, trying to get closer to Gothi.

“Gothi, are you okay?” she asked, her voice going up an octave. “What is it?”

She held up her arm, revealing an old scar made up of three circles, each getting smaller the closer they got to her hand, before abruptly hobbling away.

“Gothi.” She looked over to me, and I could tell we were both having the same thought. Fishlegs joined the two of us, seeing exactly what we had. “Her—Her scar. It matches the keyhole.”

“Yeah, and it looked like a dragon bite to me,” Fishlegs observed.

“Oh, it is,” Gobber confirmed while still beating the Dragon Eye. “But she doesn’t like to talk about it.”

“She doesn’t like to talk about anything.” I smirked at Reign’s joke, trying not to burst out into laughter out of respect for Gothi.

“Oh, _that’s_ why she writes in the dirt with her stick. I thought that was just, like, her thing.”

“Yeah, like Snotlout being woman repellent.”

“They’re not wrong about that one,” the redhead beside me muttered.

“Maybe we could use the stick to itch the teeth.”

I tapped Reign and gestured my head toward the ladder. She nodded, and after tipping off Fishlegs, the three of us started to head out.

“Where are you going?” Gobber asked.

“After her. We have to find out what kind of dragon made that scar. It could be the key to opening the Dragon Eye.”

“Hold on. I have ways of making her talk, heh.” Reign and I glanced at each other nervously. “Well, scribble anyway. Give me an hour, we’ll all meet and get Gothi to come down to my stall.”

We didn’t really have a choice, if we wanted to get the right information out of Gothi. Reign and I made our way back to my house, where we sat at the dining table, awkwardly staring. She remained silent for a long time, looking down at her hands with intensity. Once her knuckles started turning white, I reached out and rested a hand on her arm.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked, even though I already had an idea. She let out a long sigh, eyes remaining downcast for another moment before looking up at me again.

“My brother… again.” As she shook her head, some of her red curls fell in front of her face, so I reached up and pushed them behind her ear. “Whatever he’s planning, we need to stop it before it can get too far. Otherwise, I’m worried some of us might not make it out of this.” As I opening my mouth to speak, she continued her thoughts. “I know I’m stating the obvious, I just… I thought we were done with all of this.”

“At least we have the Dragon Eye.”

She forced a smile, looking up at me, then rested her head on my shoulder. I ran my hand up and down the top of her arm, trying my best to comfort her. Her familial relationships were stressful and messy, but she was stronger than them. She was the strongest woman I knew, and if anyone could handle her brother, she could.

The sun had completely set when Gobber came to fetch us. We reached his smithy, and Gothi was already sitting there, looking slightly nervous. Gobber made his way over to a pot and opened the lid, a salty fragrance drifting through the air. I heard Reign’s stomach grumble, making me realize we had yet to eat.

“It’s the old bat’s weakness, isn’t it? Come on.” He wafted some of the scent toward Gothi. “You know you can’t resist Gobber’s homemade yak noodle soup.”

Despite her best efforts to resist, Gothi picked up the pot and, somehow, downed the entire soup in all of about thirty seconds. Reign’s face crinkled in shock and disgust as Gothi threw the pot away again.

“Ho ho! She downed that like a yak in a heat wave.” Fishlegs looked to Reign and I. “That makes sense, right?”

“Eh, kinda,” Reign shrugged. Now that Gothi had finished her bribe, I moved in to get the information from her that we needed.

“Now, tell me about this bite mark.”

Gothi looked to all of us for a while, she caved and started to write on the dirt, while Gobber translated.

“’I was a turkey neck—‘“ Gothi struck him with her stick, indicating he’d read something wrong. “Ow! ‘Teenager’. Sorry. ‘I had a longing to climb Glacier Island to find pure glacial water, known for its healing properties. So, I went with two vegetables.’” She struck him yet again. “Ow! ‘Vikings.’ Sorry. I’m a bit rusty. ‘We had only been at the summit for a few hours, when we were hit by a terrible snowstorm. That’s when it attacked. It was vicious, relentless, and impossible to see in the white-out. The Snow Wraith. I’ll never know why it didn’t finish me off that day. I left knowing only one thing—that I never wanted to smooch that dragon again.’ Smooch?” She hit him one last time. “Ow! ‘See! Never wanted to _see_ it again!’ You know, your drawing ain’t what it used to be.” Gobber flinched as she raised her staff. “But your swing, strong as ever.”

Throughout Gothi’s story, I had been trying to make sense of things and began formulating a plan. There really only was one option, and as dangerous as it was, it was the only way we could open the Dragon Eye and figure out what exactly it did.

“Gothi, a tooth from the Snow Wraith is the key to unlocking the Dragon Eye. You have to help us find it.” She scribbled something, and Gobber’s eyes went wide.

“I can’t say that to him. He’s the chief’s son.” She huffed and erased it, writing something more appropriate. “She says, no way she’s ever going back. And besides, Berk needs her. It’s true. She’s the best healer we’ve got.”

“Gobber can cover for you,” I suggested. 

“Huh? Well, uh, of course I can. I’ve watched Gothi work so many times, I know this place like the back of my hand.” Gobber realized he was holding up his hook, and chuckled as he held up his actual hand.

“You remember the viciousness of the Snow Wraith. I get that. But you also remember how it was to be my age, to want to explore, to need to see what else is out there. To get answers to questions you haven’t even asked yet.” I picked up the Dragon Eye, rolling it over in my hands. “This will help me do all of that.” I glanced back at Reign and smiled. “Help _us._ But only—only if you help me unlock it.”

That seemed to change her mind. A smirk formed on Gothi’s lips, and she slammed her staff down once, in agreement. I nodded back to her, then turned to Fishlegs.

“We leave for Glacier Island in the morning, let the others know.” He nodded, then headed off to find the others and fill them in on what was going on. I reached over and took Reign’s hand with my free one, my expression getting serious. “Make sure to get all that cold-weather gear we made. And the moment the cold gets to be too much, if it does, you have to let me know, okay?”

“I’m surprised you’re not trying to convince me to stay here,” she teased.

“Well, I need my best fighter with me.” Any sarcasm disappeared from her face, leaving just an astonished, warm smile. “Besides, I’ve learned over the years that there’s nothing I could do to convince you to stay behind.”

“At least you understand that.” She leaned forward and pecked my lips. “I’ll see you in the morning. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

I stood in awe for a moment as she headed back toward her home. How did I get so lucky?

Reign shuddered against my back as Glacier Island came into view. She was bundled up in her cold weather gear, as well as draped in a blanket. Snotlout, of course, had suggested Reign ride with him and Hookfang, to keep her warm, but she immediately scoffed and rejected him. Instead, we’d stuck him with Gothi.

“Look at the size of that island,” I marveled.

“Oh! The Book of Dragons _mentions_ the Snow Wraith, but doesn’t have any information on it,” Fishlegs informed us. Clearly, this would be an opportunity for him to fill another page. “Can you believe this? A brand new dragon! It’s been so long; I’ve forgotten what this feeling is.” The twins glared at him in annoyance. “Sorry. Excited about the new dragon.”

“You mean the dragon that single-handedly wiped out Gothi’s entire search party?” Astrid cut in, reminding us that we were, in fact, flying straight into danger.

“That would be correct. So worth the long flight.”

“Speak for yourself!” Snotlout scoffed. “Your neck hair’s not covered in old lady drool.”

“Okay, here we are!” Astrid announced.

“Oh, thank Thor.”

We all touched down on the island, and the moment we climbed off our dragons, I wrapped an arm around Reign. Shriek had flown at a distance, but Reign didn’t ride her in an attempt to keep warm. She shivered again, and pulled the blanket closer against her. I kept a close eye on her, making sure she wouldn’t try and push through. Snotlout let Gothi fall off Hookfang, causing her to sweep his legs out from underneath him with her staff.

“You know, we should bring her along more often.” Snotlout sneered at Reign as he stood back up.

Gothi advanced forward, taking a look around and picking up a little ball of snow, before turning back to the rest of us and shrugging.

“Great, just great. She’s got nothing. Someone else is wearing that bag of bones home. She’s all knees and elbows."

Suddenly, the wind began to pick up, pushing against us furiously. Reign practically spasmed from the cold, so I pulled her closer against me. I wanted to tell her to go home now, but we needed her to help look for the Snow Wraith. Besides, if things got messy, she’d be out best bet for defense, even if she was freezing.

“Can we please do something? My mouth is starting to freeze shut.”

“Don’t get our hopes up.”

“Well, then we should work fast to find this Snow Wraith,” I suggested. “Because we’re not leaving until we do.”

“Let’s split up so we can cover more ground.”

“Good idea. Dragon call if you come across anything.” I looked down at Reign, who trembled. “Come on, we’ll get on Toothless.”

She nodded, and I guided her toward Toothless, allowing her to get on in front of me. Despite the heavy layers and large blanket, she was still beginning to freeze. We’d have to move fast, but if not, I’d have no choice but to send her home. I didn’t want her going unconscious again, like she did three years ago during the storm on Berk. The winds started to die down as we made a pass around the island, not spotting anything. Reign’s shivers grew less intense as we landed back at our meeting place.

“Anybody find anything?”

“All we found was some scattered yak bones,” the twins reported.

“I didn’t see anything, but I had this weird feeling that something was watching me.”

“Oh, I had a weird feeling, too. Like this old lady was stuck to my back.” Gothi peered out from behind Snotlout, unamused.

“Aah! Two heads!” Barf and Belch grumbled at Tuff’s exclamation. “Oh, sorry guys. I mean, on you two, it works. I’ve seen it before, I’m used to it.”

Once again, the wind began to pick up, intensely blowing snow in our direction. Astrid’s eyes moved to Reign as she trembled again. I wrapped my arms around her and met the blonde’s gaze. I knew exactly what she was thinking, but I wasn’t about to give up.

“Hiccup, maybe we should get out of here. That looks like a huge storm.”

“No. We should dig in here and wait for the Snow Wraith to show itself. Remember, it likes to attack while you can’t see it.”

“Great. Just great.” The others set up our camp, while I tried my best to keep Reign from completely turning to ice. Her cheeks were a vibrant red down, highlighting the freckles on her face, while her lips were taking on the slightest blue tint.

“Use your dragons as extra protection against the wind!” Toothless wrapped his wings around Reign and I, attempting to keep us from blowing away. He purred and cocked his head at Reign, leaning closer to try and keep her warm. I saw her flash the tiniest smile at him, pulling herself together despite her current state.

Suddenly, one of the tents behind us broke apart, a violent ‘crash’ accompanying it as something rushed by behind us.

“It’s the Snow Wraith!” Fishlegs cried. “Oh!” He dove into his tent, only for it to be swept away seconds later.

“Hold your ground, and fire back!”

“Fire back where? We can’t see it!” Astrid shouted over the winds, which had significantly picked up in the last couple of minutes. The dragon came through, wiping out a couple more tents, all without us getting to see it. This was becoming significantly more dangerous by the second.

“Actually, you know what? Take cover!”

Something blasted at the snow around us, causing Snotlout, Reign, Toothless, and I to go flying. A large snowbank formed on top of us, with just enough of a hole for me to see through it. My eyes widened, spotting the large, towering, and blindingly white dragon looking around, trying to find the prey it had just shot at.

“Whoa…”

It roared into the wind, spreading its wings before getting down on all fours and approaching the snowbank Snotlout had fallen into. Curiously enough, despite his head poking out the top, the dragon sniffed the area and turned around, as though not seeing him.

“Toothless, warning shot.” Toothless fired a single plasma blast in the direction of the Snow Wraith, causing it to turn toward us and roar. The other dragons started to fire and roar at it, attempting to push it back. The Snow Wraith began to fly at them, causing their fire to come a little too close to the snowbank Reign, Toothless, and I were stuck in. “Cease fire! Cease fire!”

Toothless pushed us out of the snowbank, clearing the cold, white flakes away from us.

“All right, I’ve had just enough of this dragon, bud. Do your thing.” Toothless shot his locating roar into the air, finding the Snow Wraith. “Toothless, now! Multiple blasts!” The dragon managed to dodge every single one of Toothless’ blasts before shooting up, disappearing into the whipping snow. “I think it’s gone. “Everybody okay? Everybody here?” I looked around, spotting seven other heads.

“What do you mean by ‘here’?”

“I have a question, Hiccup. What exactly is your plan to get a Snow Wraith tooth? Take it out of one of our dead bodies?”

“If all goes well, it’ll be Ruffnut’s dead body, and the Wraith Tooth.” I shook my head at Tuffnut as Gothi walked past the pair, coming to stand in the middle of all of us. She began to scribble furiously in the snow.

“Hold on, quiet. Gothi’s trying to tell us something.” Fishlegs read over it completely before translating.

“She says we should’ve left when we had the chance.” Somewhere in the distance, I heard the Snow Wraith roar again. The snowstorm began to die down, and we all huddled up, trying to come up with a final plan. If we didn’t leave soon, Reign would freeze to death. Maybe it was time to send her back…

“Reign?” She managed to look up at me, her expression slightly vacant. I rested my hands on her cheeks, trying not to flinch at how cold they were. “I think it might be time for you to go back to Berk. Shriek knows the way, she doesn’t need you to steer her, okay?”

“N-No,” she muttered weakly. “I wa-want to st-stay here. You n-need my he-help.”

“I’d rather have you safe and healing back on Berk than here and barely able to fight.”

“I’m staying he-here. E-End of sto-story.” She violently trembled, almost looking like she was spasming. I sighed, shaking my head at her stubbornness, but pulled her closer.

“Okay, that was gnarly.” I looked over to Astrid, who had nearly tumbled to her death when the Snow Wraith attacked. “Astrid, are you okay?”

“Yep. Barely.”

“Hiccup, you know I want a shot at this just as badly as you, but maybe we should get out of here. We’re sitting ducks in this storm.”

My mind continued to wander, and when I processed Fishlegs’ words, something hit me.

“Wait a minute. What did you say?”

“He said we’re sitting ducks,” Snotlout fumed. “And for once, I agree with him.”

An idea hit me. It was risky, and would require everyone to be poised to jump at the Snow Wraith, but if we did it right, we could get that tooth.

“Sitting ducks. Yes, yes! Yes, that’s exactly what we need to be.”

“Excuse me?”

“What if we could make the Snow Wraith think it sees us when we’re not there?”

“You can make yourself invisible? Why does he get to do all the cool stuff? I just have to sit here with you as a sister.” I heard Reign scoff. Or maybe it was just another shiver.

“Will you two be quiet for ten seconds?”

“Tuff’s not that far off. Look, the Snow Wraith didn’t have any trouble seeing us until Snotlout got buried in the snow. And Gothi said it couldn’t find her when she fell in a snowbank. I think that’s because it sees body heat in the same way that Toothless can find things with sound. We’ll use this to our advantage to confuse it. Then, while it’s distracted, we’ll net it and get that tooth.”

“And you’re sure it will work?” Astrid sounded skeptical, and rightly so.

“Uh…”

“Of course not.”

“I hate you. You know that?”

“Yes, I am aware of that. All right, gang, let’s get to work.”

Everyone used the last of our materials for tents to make the dummies, setting them up in a circle before we all rushed into a nearby ice cave. The wind and snow had resumed, meaning the Snow Wraith would strike again soon. It also meant we’d need to move fast, because Reign wouldn’t be able to handle much more.

“Pretty good. Now, if I’m right, when we light these on fire, the Snow Wraith will think they’re us and attack. Then we’ll have the drop on it.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Snotlout stood up and gestured out to the circle of dummies. “Look at how realistically gorgeous my statue is. I can’t in good conscious send that into flames.” Just as he finished saying that, the head, the head blew off, tumbling into the storm. “Aah!”

“I’ll work through the pain and do it for you,” Astrid deadpanned.

“Wow, you’d do that for me, Astrid?” She rolled her eyes at his dramatics.

“All right, Toothless, light ‘em up.” Toothless fired a plasma blast, setting the dummies aflame. Snotlout removed his helmet as we watched the circle, resting it on his chest.

“Somewhere in the world, a silent tear was just cried.”

We all crouched with baited breath, watching and waiting for something to happen.

“Hiccup, I don’t know if it’s—“ 

“Wait, look!” The Snow Wraith began to dive down closer to the dummies, making passes in an attempt to figure out what was going on. “Okay, next time it comes in, we go.” The Snow Wraith snatched up Snotlout’s dummy, and unfortunately, he decided to react before any of us could move.

“Oh, no, you did not!” He nudged Hookfang, causing the dragon to ignite. I barely heard the cracking noise of ice beginning to melt. Toothless lunged out just in time, but only managed to grab and cover me before the ice collapsed down, trapping everyone else, including Reign, in the cave.

“Thanks, bud.” I didn’t have time to think about Reign and the others, however, once I looked up. “Toothless, look out!” The Snow Wraith suddenly zipped by, barely missing us. “If it can see our body heat out here, then we are way too easy a target.” I got up and led Toothless into the middle of the circle of dummies. “This should even the odds a little. It won’t be able to make us out within the heat of these fires. Do your thing, bud.” Toothless roared into the air, attempting to locate the Snow Wraith, but nothing came back to us. “Easy, bud. Nothing. Where is he?” I let him take a quick break. “Keep going.”

Just as the Snow Wraith roared and spread its wings, causing me to jump, Gothi came rushing out from the cave, waving her stick in the air. She charged straight for the dragon, whatever fear that kept her back all those years ago dissolved.

“Gothi, no!”

She suddenly whapped it across the face with her staff, repeatedly striking it. The Snow Wraith flinched at first, until she missed a beat, allowing it to clamp down on the wooden object. It began to toss its head back and forth, trying to shake her loose.

“Toothless, plasma blast! And careful not to hit the crazy little woman with the staff.” He fired a plasma blast at the dragon, causing it to drop Gothi. A blast of fire hit the Snow Wraith, and I looked over to see the others free from the cave. Astrid had her arms draped around Reign, making sure she wouldn’t freeze.

“Oh yeah, that’s right! Snotlout got us out of the snow!”

“Yeah, and you’re also the one that got us buried in it in the first place,” Astrid reminded him.

“Ah, details.”

The dragons and their riders began to circle up, firing at the Snow Wraith and causing it to back up. Just when we looked like we had it cornered and ready to be netted, it took off, dashing our chances of getting a Snow Wraith tooth.

“No! We can’t lose him!”

“Actually, _he_ lost _us._ ” I tried my best to formulate a new plan, when Reign nearly collapsed in Astrid’s arms, indicating her body couldn’t take much more. If we were to try again, I’d have to force Reign to go back to Berk.

“Hiccup, we should get out of here while we can.” Astrid flicked her eyes down to Reign.

“Not yet. This isn’t over. Reign has to go back to Berk, but the rest of us have to stay here.” I felt Gothi tap me on the shoulder. “Not now, Gothi. Gang, we came here for a Snow Wraith tooth, and—“ Gothi tapped me again. “I said in a minute, Gothi. And we are not leaving—“ She still persisted. “Gothi! Without—“ She held up her staff, revealing a Snow Wraith tooth buried deep in it. “Oh. Oh, a tooth. A tooth!”

With the tooth finally acquired, we rushed back to Berk. I had Astrid and Fishlegs pass off the tooth to Gobber so he could make it into a key, while I got Reign home, wrapping her in several layers of blankets and sitting with her. It took a while for the tremors to stop, but once they did, she started to regain her spirit. When she was finally able to sit up, I reached out and took her hand.

“Did we get the tooth?” she asked. I reeled back slightly, concerned. How long had she been out of it?

“Uh, y-yeah. It’s with Gobber right now, he’s making it into a key for the Dragon Eye.” Reign nodded, her eyes growing vacant again.

“I should’ve gone back to Berk when you told me to. I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to leave you there.” I smiled at her, leaning forward and kissing her forehead.

“It’s okay. Just remember that your health and safety are more important than whatever adventure we’re on, okay?” She nodded, and I left so she could change into her normal clothes. Once she was ready, I took her hand and we headed to Gobber’s smithy. He handed me the Dragon Eye, and I began to look it over again. “So, Gobber, how was it being Gothi?”

“Well, I didn’t get to wallop anybody with my staff, but—“ 

“Gobber! Gobber!” We turned our heads to see Agnar running in our direction. “I must have more of that potion you made me earlier!”

“So it cured your stomach ailments, did it?” Agnar’s face suddenly puffed up, and just before he threw up on the grass, I wrapped my arms around Reign’s waist and pulled her back, making sure she didn’t get hit.

“Far from it. But it did cure something else.” He removed his helmet to reveal a single, thick strand of hair growing from the top of his head. “It’s made my hair grow back!”

“Hey, congrats, Agnar! You look so—“ The moment Snotlout clapped him on the back, the threw up again. “…good.”

“Well, at least you only got one of the side effects.” Agnar suddenly passed gas, emitting a foul odor. Reign and I gagged, trying our best to waft the smell away from us.

“Well, Gobber, just whip up some more of that potion for him.”

“Uh, well, it was very complicated, and I’m retired. Gothi, why don’t you take this one?” She reached up and smacked Gobber with her stick, then led Agnar away to her hut. I got closer to him and leaned against the counted slightly.

“You really have no idea what was in that potion, do you?”

“No, not a drop.” He reached behind him and placed the small tooth on the counter, now sanded down to be a key. “But, here’s your key.”

I put the key into the hole, turning it and crouching down. Reign, Snotlout, and I stared at it for a while, expecting something to happen, but absolutely nothing changed.

“We almost died for _that_?” Snotlout demanded.

“No, there’s gotta be more to it than this. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Welcome to _my_ world, sister. Nothing makes sense and you’ve got itchy teeth.” Reign rested her hand on my back, looking up at me.

“Let’s go try to figure this thing out, let the others rest.” I nodded and we headed back to my house, spending hours looking at every little detail and trying to find anything that could’ve been different. It wasn’t until the sun had long disappeared from the sky that I finally threw in the towel.

“All right. That’s it. I’m calling it a night. Maybe tomorrow. Fresh eyes.” I set the Dragon Eye down and looked to Reign. “You staying here tonight?” She shrugged.

“Sure.” We sat down on opposite sides of the bed, starting to remove shoes and armor so we could sleep comfortably. Toothless began to do his usual circling and fired down at his rock to warm it up.

That’s when a tiny, purple glow caught my eye, coming from the Dragon Eye’s lens. I sat up a little straighter, looking between Toothless and the Dragon Eye. That was it! That’s what the key did. I got up and grabbed the Dragon Eye, setting it on a stool. Reign made her way over and rested her hands on my shoulders.

“Toothless, come here. Do that again, bud. Give me a low flame.”

The purple light of Toothless’ plasma passed through the lens of the Dragon Eye, forming symbols in the light against the wall. A smile spread on my face as I stared at it, realizing we’d finally figured out the secret.

“This changes everything.”


	4. Imperfect Harmony (Reign)

“Okay, bud, go ahead.”

I smiled as the purple glow bounced off the wall once again. Hiccup and I had called the rest of the gang to his house to show off what we’d learned about the Dragon Eye. Everyone stared in awe, particularly at the symbols in front of us.

“Definitely worth getting up for,” Fishlegs marveled.

“Fishlegs, can you make out any of it?” Hiccup asked him. We’d both tried our best, but it didn’t look like any known language.

“There are parts of maps and symbols, nothing I’ve seen before. And there’s writing, but it’s in a language I’ve never read before.”

“What’s that thing?” Snotlout pointed to something that looked like a flaming fist.

“Must be some kind of tribal crest or something,” Hiccup deducted.

“Ooh, I like that way better than our tribal crest.”

“Tuff, we don’t have a tribal crest,” I pointed out, crossing my arms.

“Well, we should.”

“Yeah, and it should be that.” Fishlegs dragged his finger along the map, trying to trace wherever it was leading, if we could even figure that out.

“Hiccup, this map, you realize it…”

“Goes beyond the boundaries of the Archipelago. Oh, I know.” He looked up at me with a smile, and I felt my heart melt. His desire for adventure had been driving him lately, and if we could figure this map out, we might finally be able to go out there and discover the world. I reached down and squeezed his shoulder, resting one hand on it.

“So, what’s our next move?” I asked, the smile never leaving my face. He patted my hand to indicate he wanted to get up.

“For now, we should get some sleep. But I’m going to present this to the council tomorrow, and hope that my dad will let us go out there and find whatever’s waiting for us.” Everyone nodded and headed out, and once they were gone, he turned to me. “You still want to stay here?”

“Of course.” I reached over and tied up my unkempt mop, so it wouldn’t smother one of us in the middle of the night. “Are you even going to be able to sleep?” I teased as we sat down on the bed. “You seem too excited now.” He chuckled.

“I’ll try my best. At the very least, I won’t keep you up.” I sighed and rested against his chest, closing my eyes.

“Mm… thank you.”

“Look at this!” He gestured his arms widely. “There are maps we have never seen, writings we can’t read, dragons we don’t recognize. It’s-It’s incredible! This Dragon Eye—This is proof that there is a whole other world out there, a world that must be explored.

I smiled at him as he turned back around, having presented his case to the council. They all stared at him for a moment, trying to process what they’d just heard, before Gobber spoke up.

“This sure beats normal council business.”

“It’s all right, lads. You can speak your minds We are a council, after all. That’s why we’re here,” Stoick urged.

And that’s when Spitelout let loose.

“We’ve been at peace for three years. Best years on Berk I can remember. I think you know as well as I do that when you go looking for trouble, you usually find it.”

“I’m with Spitelout,” Sven chimed in. This was not going well. “If that Dragon Eye leads to unknown places and new wild dragons, then no good will come from any of that.”

“I completely disagree, Sven.” All eyes turned to me, and I caught the dorky smile flash on Hiccup’s face as I leaned my hands against the table. “Look around you. How can you say that no good can come from discovering new species of dragons? If they’re out there, we have to find them.”

“If there’s anything _you_ and the other Riders should be doing, it’s hunting down Dagur and putting him back in jail where he belongs.” I sneered at Spitelout, my fingers tensing slightly.

“Another reason to go,” Hiccup added, clearly trying to cut me off before I started yelling. “Dagur was headed beyond our borders. He thinks we won’t go past them. But that’s where we’ll find him.”

“Stoick, anytime you’d like to chime in, we can put this thing to rest.” He looked to the chief as though he wanted him to take his side.

“You’re right, Spitelout. Let’s put this to rest.” He approached his son, causing Hiccup’s expression to fall.

“Dad.” 

“Let me speak, son. This is as important for you two to hear as it is them. Spitelout, you’re absolutely right. These have been some of our best years. Nothing is more important than peace; peace among us, peace with our neighbors, and peace with our dragons.” I shook my head and looked down. At least we tried. “Having said that, let me ask you this, Spitelout: when you and I first had Alvin in our sights and everyone was trying to tell us to leave well enough alone, what did we do?”

“Crushed him, that’s what you did,” Gobber answered, slamming his hammer hand down on the table.

“Thank you, Gobber,” he sighed.

“My pleasure, Chief.”

“When Valka was taken, and I went in search of her, could anyone have stopped me?” I quickly flashed my eyes over to Hiccup, watching his reaction at the mention of his mother. He stepped back slightly, but otherwise appeared completely unphased.

“Well, technically, you’re the chief, so no.”

“Yes, Gobber, fair point, but you know where I’m going. Think of the most important thing in the world to each of you. Ask yourselves honestly how far you would be willing to go to get it. What would you risk?” Stoick grabbed his son’s shoulders and turned him to face him. “This boy’s life has been dragons. His life _is_ dragons, and will continue to be.”

Strangely enough, Hiccup’s eyes fell to me, and I swear I saw him shake his head very subtly.

“We couldn’t stop him from going if we wanted to. So we might as well support him. Go, lad. Find whatever it is out there that’s pulling on you. And when you find it, Berk will be right here waiting for you.”

I couldn’t fight my smile. Stoick… had actually agreed with us? That never happened, ever.

“You best get out of here before all this nostalgia wears off and he changes his mind.”

I snatched up the Dragon Eye and Hiccup followed me out. The moment we were out of sight of the Council, he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me against him, pressing his lips against mine passionately. I flinched for a second, caught off guard, but soon reached up and rested one of my hands in his hair.

“We did it!” he exclaimed once the two of us broke away. “I can’t believe he actually agreed with us.”

“That just means we need to go before he changes his mind. Come on, let’s go get the others.” I started to walk away, but he yanked me back by my hand.

“The others could wait a little… right?” I scoffed at him, smacking his shoulder lightly.

“No, they can’t. Now, come on. We’re losing daylight.”

I stared out at the vast sea in front of us, the reaches just outside the Archipelago. We’d never gone far beyond here, but I was ready for whatever waited out there, good or bad. I looked to Hiccup on my left, who smiled at me before glancing down at his dragon.

“You ready for this?” he asked his scaly friend.

“Blah, blah, blah,” Snotlout mocked. “Why do you have to make a production out of everything?” Hiccup looked to me, as though asking for support, but I had to agree with Snotlout on this one. “Let’s just go already.”

“Okay, but if anyone has any reservations—“ Before he could finish his sentence, Astrid, Fishlegs, and the twins rushed past him.

“Into the great beyond!” Snotlout cried before charging forward.

Hiccup stared at their fading figures for a moment, dumbfounded, before he and I took off after them. We flew for hours, scanning every inch of the world around us, but after clouds began to roll in, people had lost their enthusiasm, and we had yet to find anything. I was tempted to climb onto Toothless with Hiccup and take a nap, because he would let me do that sometimes, but I decided to persist, for the sake of the group.

“Into the great beyond…” The excitement in Snotlout’s voice had long faded away. The others let out half-hearted responses, attempting to keep themselves from falling asleep. It seemed like Hiccup was the only one left with the same amount of energy he had before.

“Oh, come on, you guys. So we’ve had a couple of tough hours. Nothing that’s worth anything comes easy.”

“Is that one of your riddles?” I could barely hear Tuffnut’s voice. “Because now is not the time, my friend. We have to keep saying ‘great beyond’.”

“Okay. Toothless, let’s see if there’s anything out there.” Toothless let out the roar that allowed him to find things, but nothing came back to him. I groaned and rested my elbows against Shriek’s back, propping up my head. “Nothing.”

Just as he finished saying that, thunder cracked against the sky, and we were suddenly pelted by rain. I looked around at everyone, and realized we needed to land _now_. All of us had some form of metal on us, meaning we were in danger of getting struck by lightning.

“Ugh!” Astrid cried in disgust. “Seems like the farther we go, the worse it gets.”

“Babe, I think we should turn back,” I shouted to him. “We’ve been flying for most of the day.”

“We just have to keep pushing forward until we’re out of this.” I rolled my eyes. We were a stubborn pair, which sometimes ended up frustrating the both of us to no end. This was one of those times.

But when I looked ahead, I spotted the break in the clouds.

“Hiccup, is that—“ 

“Yeah, it is. Everybody fly to the light!”

Relief flooded over me as we all broke through the clouds without getting harmed. Everyone’s eyes widened as we looked at the island below us. Rock formations were stacked tall, appearing ancient. Best of all, there didn’t seem to be any sort of life on it, meaning it would be the perfect place for us to camp. But, of course, Hiccup wouldn’t want to stop, so I just took the victory of making it out alive.

“Look at this!”

“It’s incredible.”

“I know, right? We made it, Hiccup. We made it!” I caught him smiling at my enthusiasm.

“Uh, guys, can we slap each other on the backs later? Meatlug’s wings are about to fall off.”

“Sorry, guys. There’s a place up ahead we can set down.” I looked to Hiccup, slightly astonished. Was he actually suggesting we stop for a while? What a miracle.

Out of nowhere, Meatlug perked up, her eyes turning to slits as she stared down at the island below us.

“Whoa, whoa, what is it, girl? Don’t you want to rest?”

Creepily enough, all the dragons’ heads turned in the same direction, as though they were looking at something. Every dragon, that is, except Shriek, strangely enough. It wasn’t until we got a little closer that I heard some strange, musical tone coming from somewhere.

“Guys, do you hear that? What is that?”

“I have no idea, but the dragons are definitely pulled towards it.”

“Shriek isn’t.” Everyone looked up to see I was several paces behind them. Their dragons had started speeding up, upon being called by the apparent Siren’s song. “That’s strange.”

“Well, Thunderdrums are hard of hearing,” Fishlegs informed me. “There’s a good chance she can’t even hear it.” I looked down at her, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re a strange little dragon.” The dragons persisted in their pursuit toward the strange noise.

“I guess that’s where we’re going.”

Everyone steered their dragons downward, landing on the island. Once we dismounted, everyone took the chance to look around. The sound had stopped, thankfully, allowing us a bit of time to relax. Hiccup and I had found our way onto a rock a bit away from everyone else. We could still see them, but it gave us the chance for a bit of separation. He leaned his head against my shoulder, smiling up at me as I linked our hands together. Everyone kept marveling and smiling about the island.

“Well, I guess we don’t have to vote on where we’re making camp.”

“Ha ha, I’ll take care of the fire!” Snotlout shouted. He immediately jumped up from where he was relaxing and began to fish around in his saddle bag for something. Hiccup sat up a little straighter as he watched him, and I saw the worry cross his face.

“We should go make sure he doesn’t set the entire beach aflame.”

“Agreed.” I helped him to his feet, and the two of us made our way back. Snotlout was now spreading some green gel on the sand in a line.

“Hookfang, light it up!” Hookfang shot out a single flame, which traveled along the length of the gel. We all flinched as it reached a bush, causing the fire to puff up slightly. “Monstrous Nightmare gel! Don’t leave home without it.”

“Ehh.” Hiccup’s nervous expression mirrored mine, but honestly, as long as he didn’t burn down the entire island, it might come in handy to have some of that stuff around.

The hours began to slip away quickly as we all set up camp for the night and prepared dinner. Not long after that, everyone else drifted off to sleep. Hiccup and I, on the other hand, sat just on the edge of the water, staring out at the horizon. We’d been in a comfortable silence for a while, snuggled up against each other.

“You were right, Hiccup. There’s so much more out there. And it’s beautiful.”

“And this is only the beginning, Reign. Who knows what we’ll find out there?” He looked down at his hands for a moment, as though contemplating something, then quickly snapped his head back up to me. “Can I… ask you something?”

My breath hitched in my throat. He looked so serious. Just as I opened my mouth to answer, a loud yawn escaped, and my eyelids almost fluttered shut. Hiccup laughed, then stood and reached down for my hand. I tried to wave him away, fighting to keep my eyes open.

“It’s fine, I’m fine,” I slurred. “What’s on your mind?”

“It can wait, love.” I shook my head, taking his hand and standing up. “We should sleep, anyways. We’ve got another long day ahead.” I groaned in dread, but knew it was inevitable. So, instead, I followed Hiccup back to the others, and the two of us curled up against Toothless, quickly drifting off to sleep.

“Reign, wake up! Do you hear that?”

I shot my eyes open as Hiccup vigorously shook my shoulders. Groggily, I rubbed my eyes and pushed myself to my feet, wobbling slightly due to the sand. I tried my best to listen for whatever Hiccup was trying to point out to me, but there was nothing but silence.

“What? I don’t hear anything,” I muttered.

“Exactly. It’s gone. The sound is gone.”

“So are the dragons,” Fishlegs cried. I whipped around to see that, indeed, every one of our dragons had disappeared. “All of them, gone.”

Immediately, the other riders began to search the entire strip of the beach, calling out for their dragons in hopes that they had just wandered off to find food and had gotten lost. This _was_ a new island, after all. But I’d never known Shriek to really wander before, so it seemed strange that in the time I had been asleep, she could have decided she wanted to just walk away.

Shaking my head at the absurd situation, I made my way over to where Astrid was standing, glaring at the twins as they emerged from behind two rocks close together. The two of them checked the perimeter one more time, before Astrid finally had enough of watching them wander in circles.

“Ugh, how many times are you guys gonna check behind that rock?” she groaned. “Barf and Belch cannot hide behind it.”

“Clearly, you are not aware of the stealthiness of one Barf and Belch.” Ruffnut’s confidence wavered for a moment as she furrowed her brows. “Or… is that ‘two Barf and Belch’?”

“Hmm, excellent question,” her brother replied. Astrid shot me an annoyed glance, rolling her eyes at how quickly the twins got off track. “Two heads…”

“…one dragon.”

“Two brains…”

“…one body.”

“Two bodies, half a brain!” Snotlout cackled at his own joke as he passed by us, still trying to look for Hookfang. I shook my head, my eyes moving over to Hiccup and Fishlegs, who emerged from the bushes without dragons.

“Nothing,” Hiccup sighed. “I don’t get it. Where would they go?”

“Oh, my Meatlug,” Fishlegs lamented. “She wouldn’t do this. She wouldn’t leave me. She would never do this on her own.”

“I’ve never known Shriek to just wander off, either,” I sighed, moving closer to Hiccup and standing by his side.

Suddenly, the leaves behind us rustled, causing everyone to stop and stare intensely at the bushes. I placed one hand on my sword, prepared for whatever was back there to be some sort of hostile creature upset by our presence. I flinched slightly as a black blur jumped out, only able to calm down once I really registered that it was none other than a familiar Night Fury. He tackled his rider, who merely started laughing. For a moment, a smile crept onto my face.

“There you are, bud. Where did you go?” Hiccup asked, as though Toothless was capable of answering him.

Toothless roared again, then began to pace in circles, looking as though he was fighting with something… or as though he was trying to act something out for us.

“Okay, I think your dragon ate something weird in the forest, because he’s out of his mind.”

“No, no, I think he’s trying to tell us something,” Fishlegs countered. Gently, Hiccup knelt down and placed his hands on Toothless’ chin.

“What is it, bud?” He tried to keep his tone calm, despite the distressing situation. “Is it the other dragons?”

Toothless clamped his teeth down around Hiccup’s peg leg and took off, trying to drag him to wherever he wanted us to go. Unfortunately, the force with which Toothless yanked on the leg popped it right off, leaving Hiccup only a few feet from where he had started. I quickly rushed over and knelt down beside him, making sure he hadn’t gotten hurt before looking up and watching as Toothless continued to run off, completely unaware he was leaving Hiccup behind.

“Uh, how far do you think he’s gonna get before he realizes?” I asked, my eyes flickering to Hiccup again.

“Hard to say. He seemed pretty committed.”

Thankfully, not long after that, Toothless noticed he was dragging considerable less weight than he had expected and finally turned around. He sheepishly made his way back to us, setting the leg in Hiccup’s lap.

“It okay, bud.” he assured, petting the Night Fury. “I like the enthusiasm.”

After tying his leg back on, Hiccup got up onto the back of his dragon, before turning and looking at the rest of us. He had that sort of angry expression on his face, indicating he’d had just about enough of all of this. Impressive, considering we hadn’t been at this for very long.

“You guys stay here in case they come back.”

“Be safe.” He smiled at me, trying his best to keep me from worrying. Like that was gonna happen.

“I’ll do my best.”

“That’s not really—“ Before I could finish, Hiccup and Toothless took off, leaving me shaking my head. Astrid laid a hand on my shoulder, silently reassuring me, then all of us turned to start searching for our dragons.

We didn’t get very far before I heard a low, familiar growling from the bushes. I paused for a moment, turning my head around slightly, but I didn’t see anything approaching, so I just turned back to the others, dismissing it as something that just happened in my head. But I shouldn’t have done that because just a moment later, a large Thunderdrum jumped out of the bushes. For a split second, I thought it was Shriek, but the look in its eyes, and the narrowing of its pupils told me we’d never seen this dragon before.

“Oh, Thor!” Fishlegs shouted as we all ran. “Oh, Thor!”

“Reign, is that Shriek?” I glared at Snotlout as all of us ducked behind rocks.

“What about that Thunderdrum’s attitude tells you it’s Shriek?” I screamed, gesturing to the large, purple dragon. Everyone clapped their hands over their ears as the Thunderdrum let out a sonic boom. Once the loud noise faded, I slowly crept out from behind the rock, hoping to try and calm the beast. Before I could do anything, two purple blasts shot down from above us, and as the Thunderdrum scurried away, Hiccup and Toothless landed.

“Anything else you want to draw toward us?” I flinched at how loud Snotlout was. I guess I was more adjusted to the loud noises of a Thunderdrum. “Changewing? Ooh, Screaming Death, maybe? I’m sure there are one of those around here!”

“Snotlout, you’re yelling very loudly!” Hiccup snapped back at him.

“Oh, really? I can barely hear myself! Because that’s what happens when you get attacked by a wild Thunderdrum!” Hiccup brushed off the comment, opting to just adjust Toothless’ saddle instead.

“Okay, we need our dragons. I’m gonna get back out there.” Though I heard him, the others just started blinking at him, trying to register exactly what he’d said. “I said I’m going back out there!”

“No! No, you’re not!”

“Get back here!”

“I will take your other leg!”

“No way, Hiccup,” Astrid protested, jutting one hip out, “you are _not_ leaving us alone again.”

“We’re dragon-less and defenseless.”

“And we can only communicate by yelling!” I furrowed my brows.

“Which, although quite enjoyable, is not very stealthy! Are you hearing any of this?” I’m sure Hiccup’s mind had been made up a while ago, everyone had just kept going.

“Okay, fine. We’ll all together.” Once again, Hiccup’s words literally fell on deaf ears. “Oh, for—I said we’ll all go together.

“Why didn’t you just say so? Jeez…”

I hated to admit it, but they kind of had a point. The sword really didn’t come in handy when dealing with dragons. And the yelling thing certainly was an issue. I didn’t realize how much I relied on Shriek’s abilities to defend myself until now. Before we had dragons, I hadn’t been the best fighter, but I at least could react on a moment’s notice. Now, it felt like I wouldn’t stand a chance in a situation… well, like this.

“Reign?” I shook my head a little, snapping myself out of my thoughts. Hiccup had stopped walking, allowing the others to get ahead of him as he made his way over to me. “What’s going through your head?” I sighed, not wanting to express anything at first. After all, it seemed sort of silly to talk about this with Hiccup, of all people.

“Don’t worry about it,” I sighed, leaning over slightly as he wrapped an arm around my waist. “This is just a really weird situation.” Just as quickly as the thoughts crossed my mind again, I shooed them away.

“Uh, Hiccup?” The two of us turned our attention to Fishlegs, who kept glancing at the sky nervously.

“I know, Fishlegs. No longer amazing.”

“Can we get a vote for creepy and weird?” Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins all raised their hands.

The jokes came to a screeching halt, however, when a mountainous structure caused all of us to stop quickly in our tracks. The fog obstructed exactly what it was for a moment, but once it cleared, I felt my stomach drop.

“Are those what I think they are?” Fishlegs trembled.

“Weirdly shaped white rocks?” Tuffnut tried his best, but there was no mistaking what those were.

“Dragon bones…” I whispered.

“Ah, a boneyard. Yes, I like it.” Everyone else’s glares caused Tuff to change his tune. “I don’t like it.”

Toothless began to circle the bones as my eyes wandered downward, noticing some glimmering, orange-ish item next to my foot. Curious, I reached down and held it in my fingers, turning it to try and inspect it. It felt smooth and slightly cold, but I’d never seen anything like it.

“What is this stuff?” I turned to Hiccup, thinking he might know something, but he looked just as confused as I was.

“No idea,” he shrugged.

I snapped my attention away from the strange object at the sound of a screeching dragon cry, one I didn’t recognize. It echoed over the entire island, shaking some of the trees slightly.

“Okay, what was that?” Snotlout trembled.

“That, my friend, is a dragon in trouble,” Fishlegs answered. Almost immediately, Toothless took off in the direction of the noise, leaving the rest of us standing there a moment before we ran after him. He squeezed between a pair of rocks, cleft right down the middle. Carefully, each of us squeezed through, bringing us into a clearing of dragons, trapped in the same orange-ish substance I’d found by my foot a moment ago.

“Whoa…” Hiccup muttered.

I pressed one hand against my chest, mortified by all the dragons immobilized in front of me. They all wore expressions ranging from defeated and forlorn to paranoid, as though they knew something was coming. Slowly, I reached down for Hiccup’s hand, squeezing it as our fingers laced together.

“You guys do know what’s going on here, don’t you?” I questioned whether Tuffnut himself understood, but then again, we often didn’t give him enough credit.

“Yeah. Something is trapping the dragons in this amber rock substance and immobilizing them.”

“Oh.” Tuffnut paused for a moment, fully taking in what Fishlegs had said. “Oh, I had a completely different idea that involved oily fish and bad mutton.” I quickly whipped my head around to stare at Tuff.

“How exactly would that—“ I cut myself off, sticking one hand up and shaking my head. “Never mind, I _really_ don’t want to know.

“Then it’s breaking them out, and—“ Fishlegs hesitated, his eyes falling. “—and eating them. Ohh….”

“Ah, come on,” Ruffnut dismissed. “Who would be doing that?”

In a cruel twist of irony, the moment after Ruff asked her question, that same roar from before cut through our conversation. I quickly broke free from Hiccup’s grasp and rushed to the nearest set of rocks, along with Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins. All the dragons encased in the amber began to tremble as a large, orange dragon with magnificent, spotted wings came up over the horizon, diving down and leering over its prey.

“How about that guy?” Ruffnut shouted, coming up from behind the rocks and pointing at the dragon. “Yeah, he looks suspect to me.” Fishlegs clamped his hand around her mouth and dragged her back down as the dragon turned its head in our direction, intrigued by the noise. In my peripheral vision, I could see Hiccup tugging on Toothless’ saddle, restraining him from leaping out of their hiding place. I tried my best not to stare as the large dragon grabbed one of the smaller ones trapped in amber and took off.

As we all emerged from hiding, that same low note we heard when we first arrived here droned on, despite the fact the dragon had already flown away. Toothless’ pupils turned to slits, and Hiccup had to grab onto him to keep him from flying in the same direction as the dragon that had just left.

“It’s that sound,” I realized, my eyes moving to Hiccup. “That song—that’s what draws the dragons in!”

“Songwing.” Astrid turned to Fishlegs, one eyebrow raised.

“What?”

“That’s what we should name it,” he explained.

“Now? Really?” Hiccup cried. “You want to name it _now_?”

“We need to call it _something_ ,” Fishlegs argued. I sighed, resting my forehead against the palm of my hand and shaking my head.

“Yeah, I’m thinking Deathsong might be more appropriate.” Despite the inappropriate timing, Tuffnut kinda hit the nail on the head. “You know, ‘cause you hear the song, you’re dead.”

“Tell you what, he makes a pretty good point.”

“Yeah, I do.” Tuff’s confidence faltered only a moment later. “Wait, what was it again?”

“It doesn’t matter what we call it,” Astrid interjected, trying to get us back on track. “If it’s doing it to all these dragons, then it probably did it to ours.”

“We have to find them.” Fishlegs had returned to his normal, panicked state.

“Fast.”

We all broke off in different directions, calling out for our dragons to hopefully get their attentions and get them to make some sort of noise. Although I called for Shriek, something didn’t add up in my head. If the sound was what drew the dragons in, then how was it possible that she went missing, too? Thunderdrums were hard of hearing, meaning she likely wouldn’t be able to hear the song. Part of me worried she was now on some other part of the island, lost and unsure of what was happening.

The growl of the Deathsong brought me back to reality. Toothless lept from Hiccup’s side, bounding up onto the rocks and firing two plasma blasts as the dragon approached again. Toothless just managed to dodge the first blast of amber the Deathsong fired, but the second shot struck Toothless head-on, throwing him to the ground and leaving him defenseless. Immediately, I jumped up and rushed to the dragon’s side, followed by Hiccup. He looked as though his eyes were about to pop out of his head, hands trembling as he placed them against the already hardened amber.

“You guys, get your dragons free now!” he shouted at the others.

It was a completely wasted effort. The moment the others emerged from their hiding places, the Deathsong went after them, trapping each of them in amber. I gawked slightly, feeling an intense pressure in my chest as I stared at them. There had to be something I could do to help them. If the Deathsong came back again, it’d be going for our dragons, and then… my friends.

“Wha—I can’t move! I’m totally stuck.” Fishlegs clearly tried to flail his arms, but to no avail.

“Me, too. I can’t believe that thing got me. I’m usually so limber.” Snotlout sounded as though it was such an impossible situation. But, honestly, with the attention he always drew to himself, he was probably the most likely out of all of us to get caught.

“Yeah? Well, at least you got your own cocoon.”

“Oh yeah. Like this is a picnic for me.” The twins immediately began to try and move, fighting with each other, but the force caused them to topple over.

As Hiccup continued to try and pry Toothless free, I heard the Deathsong’s roar return, and just as I looked up, I saw the menacing dragon coming this way. For a split second, my mind shut down, before instinct took over and I lunged to the side.

“Hiccup, it’s come for you!” He froze as he turned around, leaving me to push him out of the way. As the amber coated me, I felt my arms press firmly against my sides, as though two Monstrous Nightmares were sitting on them. Immediately, Hiccup raced over to my side and began to run his hands all over the amber, desperately trying to break through it somehow.

“Reign! I’m going to get you out of this, don’t worry.” I did my best to shake my head, trying to get him to go.

“If you don’t take cover now, the Deathsong’s going to trap you, and then we’ll have no hope of getting out of here.”

“But, I’m not leaving—“ The Deathsong roared, circling back around again.

“Just go!” He still hesitated. “I promise I’ll still be here when you come back with a plan.” I still managed to smile at him, despite the precarious situation. “I love you.

“I…” Finally, he caved. “I love you, too.”

“Now, go!”

I watched as he disappeared through another cleft in the rocks, finding some reassurance in the fact he at least had more of a clearing to hide from the Deathsong as it chased him. My stomach still churned at the thought of him out there, without Toothless to help him out, but he was capable of defending himself.

“Uuh! Uuh! Where’s Hiccup!” Snotlout grunted as he thrashed his head, trying to break free somehow. “I knew he’d leave us. I have to pee.”

“Really didn’t need to know that,” I scoffed. “And he didn’t leave us. He’ll be back.” I tried my best to move my fingers, but I couldn’t even stretch them slightly. “If I could just reach my sword.”

“It wouldn’t matter, Reign. Whatever this is, it’s really strong.” One of Fishlegs’ hands hadn’t gotten trapped, but even that couldn’t give him enough leverage. “Uhh! I don’t think we can cut through it.”

“If we can’t cut it, then how do we get out of here?”

“Yeah, you can’t tell me that my last breath is gonna be inhaling her stinky fish hair!” Tuffnut whined, trying to move his head out of the way of his sister’s hair.

“Oh, yeah, that’s real original,” Ruff deadpanned. “You know what? I hope it eats you first. At least I’ll have something cool to watch before I die.”

“You stay on your side of the cocoon, missy.” Suddenly, I saw the twins go flying out of the corner of my eye, landing on their backs.

“Whoa!”

“Whoa! What’s going on? Do it again!”

“Okay, so that’s a negative on Plan A—ramming the cocoon open.” I breathed a sigh of relief, a smile forming on my face as I looked to my left and saw Hiccup on… that wild Thunderdrum from earlier?

“Please tell me you have a Plan B,” Astrid groaned.

“If it involves cutting, ramming, or ripping, you might as well forget it, Hiccup. Once it cools down, this stuff is hard as any rock I’ve ever seen.”

“Cools down?” I recognized that slight lilt in his voice. Something was starting to form in his brain.

“And hardens.”

“Hmm.” He paused for another moment, looking over all of us again. “Nobody move.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s funny,” Tuff scoffed, rolling his eyes at Hiccup. “A real comedian.”

I watched as he reached onto his belt, detaching a container and spreading its contents over the amber. The green gel remained in its place as Hiccup laid it down in a line, making sure to cover each of us and our dragons. It took me a moment to remember what exactly that gel was, but once its usage from last night came back to me, my heart sped up a little.

“What are you doing, Hiccup?” Snotlout demanded. This came from his dragon, he really should have figured it out by now.

“Just trust me, Snotlout.”

“Says the man who’s about to light me on fire?” So he _did_ know what he was doing.

“You said it only stings a little,” Hiccup shrugged.

“I was lying! You know I’m a liar!”

“It’ll be okay, Snotlout, I promise.”

Hiccup turned on his heel and rushed out of my field of vision. Just as he disappeared, the Deathsong landed on its usual perch, scanning its hungry eyes over each of us. Snotlout shrieked and quickly lolled his head to the side, playing dead. I sucked in a breath as it came down and landed right behind Fishlegs, eyeballing him a moment before reaching for the dragon on its right, snatching it up and flying away.

“Aah!” Fishlegs screamed, throwing his head back and forth. “Hurry up, Hiccup! He just took the appetizer. I think I’m the main course.” Somehow, Fishlegs managed to push himself away from Meatlug, throwing him onto his back. “Uhh! Oh, Thor!”

“Fishlegs, relax. It could take hours for him to eat that dragon,” I tried to assure him. But just as I finished speaking, the Deathsong made its way back to us and landed right above Fishlegs, licking its lips.

“Or minutes,” he trembled. “Help!”

The Deathsong’s cry was overlapped by the loud, booming scream of the Thunderdrum, indicating Hiccup had finally come back for us. It’s shadow quickly took off, and every now and then, I could see the two of them circle overhead as Hiccup tried to lose it. A quick window opened up, allowing Hiccup and the Thunderdrum to slip through. Once they were close enough to the ground, he jumped from the dragon’s back, sliding on the ground on his shield. The friction caused a few sparks to fly up, hitting the Monstrous Nightmare gel and igniting it. Intense heat smothered my face as the flames caused the amber to quickly melt and form a pool on the ground around me. The moment I could move again, I sprung up, rushing over to Shriek, who had been trapped far away from the others.

“How did you get here, girl?” I muttered, rubbing her side a little. “Never mind, we have bigger things to worry about.” I jumped onto her back and took off with the others, eager to finally get off this island and find somewhere else to set up camp.

Relieved, I turned around, searching for Hiccup, but I couldn’t spot him in the group. I darted my eyes around trying to figure out what could have happened to him, and my mind began to race. The Deathsong could have caught him, and he was trapped down there and I had just taken off. Thor, I should have paid more attention, especially in a scenario like this. This was the man I wanted to marry, and I just left him on his own! What in Thor’s name was I—

“Reign!”

I snapped my attention to Astrid, who pointed toward a point on the horizon where Hiccup and Toothless were facing the wild Thunderdrum, and what looked like its child beside it. I leaned down a little, letting out a sigh before joining the others as we made our way over to him. A warmth enveloped my heart as I watched the Thunderdrum nuzzle its child, and the smile on Hiccup’s face only caused that to spread. After a moment, he noticed me staring, and flew a little closer to take my hand.

“If I were you two, I’d maybe find another island,” he advised the Thunderdrums. “I don’t know how long that’s gonna hold.”

“Uh, you know they can’t hear you, right?” Another rare instance where Tuff actually knew what he was talking about.

“Yes, Tuff, I know,” Hiccup groaned. “Let’s get out of here.”

We took to the skies again, the sun rapidly setting overhead as we flew as far away from the island as possible. I glanced down at my dragon for a moment, smiling, before moving my eyes back to Hiccup.

“I still don’t know why Shriek was over with the other dragons. If she couldn’t hear the Deathsong’s call, then she shouldn’t have been lured over there.”

“Well, maybe she was just going after the others, to make sure they were safe.” Hiccup’s smile somehow managed to take on more affection. “Like her rider.” I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t fight down my smile.

“You’re such a shameless flirt.” I got as close as I could, managing to kiss his shoulder. “I’m glad you didn’t get hurt.”

“You, too.” A bit of regret suddenly crossed his eyes, and he turned to look at the other riders.

“Hey, gang, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for getting you all into this. If you want to turn back—“

“Are you kidding?” I scoffed.

“No way.”

“This is the most fun we’ve had in years.” With all that said, not everything had been covered.

“There is something we do need, though.” Hiccup cocked his head slightly.

“I’m all ears.”

“We need an island. Our own island.”

“Reign’s right, Hiccup,” Fishlegs chimed in. “We’re way too far out to travel back and forth to Berk.”

“What we need is a base of operations.” I was glad to see Hiccup was on board with all of this… not that I really doubted it at all.

“Exactly. But this time, we don’t let the dragons pick the island.” Meatlug snarled at Fishlegs, causing him to jump slightly. “Sorry, girl, it had to be said.”

“All right, Snotlout, you’re the man of the hour for bringing the Monstrous Nightmare gel. You choose.” I cringed a little. That didn’t necessarily seem like the smartest decision.

“Seriously?” Even Snotlout seemed to agree.

“Yeah, seriously.”

“All right! What do you say, Fangster?” Hookfang roared, giving absolutely no indication of which direction to go in. But, I guess that’s just part of the adventure.

“Ha! Couldn’t agree more.” Snotlout pumped his fist into the air. “Into the great beyond!”

“The great beyond!” The rest of us shouted.

Wherever this took us, I couldn’t wait.


	5. When Darkness Falls (Hiccup)

I propped my elbows up on Toothless’ back, resting my head against my hands. We’d officially spent this whole day trying to look for an island that would be suitable for an outpost, but every time, we seemed to strike out. There were the angry boars, and then the Blue Oleander, the Whispering Deaths, and the angry boars again. It seemed like an endless stream of uninhabitable islands. At this rate, it didn’t feel like we’d ever find somewhere to set up an outpost.

“Hiccup?” I lifted my head, moving my eyes to Reign as she hovered closer. “You look discouraged.” Before I could open my mouth, she continued. “We’ll find an island, don’t worry.” Her reassuring smile caused my stomach to flutter, before I couldn’t help but match her expression. She leaned over and kissed my cheek, then made her way back to Astrid, who began a rapid conversation with her. Whatever they were talking about, Reign kept shaking her head.

“Hiccup, look!”

I followed Fishlegs’ point, spotting a large island with a huge mountain on one side of it. From up here, it didn’t look like there was anything wrong with it, but then again, most of the other islands gave off that impression, too. All of us dove down toward the land mass, breaking off in different directions to survey the entire thing. I had to admit, nothing seemed off about it so far.

“This looks pretty good,” I admitted.

“Those cliffs could work.” Reign pointed to the large cliffs towering over us as we circled them. “Good sightlines, easily defendable.” The rest of the group made their way back to us, just as hopeful as Reign and I.

“The location is great,” Fishlegs added. “It’s perfect.”

“Yeah. _Too_ perfect.” I shook my head. Tuff really didn’t need to inject doubt right now, especially when it seemed like we were finally settling on this location. “I’m just saying, in the immortal words of the mighty Thor, ‘When something looks too perfect, it probably sucks.’”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Thor never said anything remotely like that,” I scoffed.

“Oh, really? How do you know?” Tuffnut challenged. “Do you know Thor? Have you talked to him recently?”

“No, but—“

“Because I have, mm-hmm. And I don’t recall him mentioning you.” I shook my head. “Look, I just have a feeling about this place, and I think we all know what happens when I get a feeling.”

“We ignore it?” I could tell Reign was stifling her laughter as she spoke, resulting in a smirk.

The rest of us dove toward a clearing on the island, choosing to settle in there for a while. The group had crowded around a point on the ground, staring at something, while Reign helped me unload a few of the things from Toothless’ saddle bags.

“Okay, the first thing we need to do is set up camp for the night,” I announced to the others. “We need dry wood for fire, we need fresh water, and we need someone on traps.”

“Snotlout, what is that?” I heard Astrid ask from behind us. Reign and I made our way over to them, leaning down through the gaps in their circle to try and look at what Astrid was scoffing at.

“It’s an ‘S’, for ‘Snotlout’. I think aesthetically it would look nice flying over.”

“That’s ridiculous. It doesn’t matter what the outpost looks like. It needs to be functional and operational.”

“Uh, guys, what we really need is—“

“A place for rest, relaxation and replenishing after a hard day’s work,” Fishlegs interjected. “You’re absolutely right, Hiccup. Look, Meatlug and I had some thoughts.” He pulled out a shield with various little rocks and twigs on top of it, creating a layout for the base he imagined. When did he have time to do that?

“Is that a hot tub?” Astrid pointed to a large circle of rocks and twigs.

“No, that’s the mud bath.” Fishlegs gestured to the circle next to the one Astrid had singled out. “The hot tub is over there.” I heard Toothless growl in my ear, clearly annoyed.

“Tell me about it,” I muttered.

“Wait a minute. Everyone stop.” The twins leaned closer to Fishlegs’ plan, frantically scanning their eyes over it. “I don’t see it.”

“Me, neither.”

“See what?” There was part of me that regretted asking that question, but I knew I had to make sure they weren’t about to suggest something that would be completely irrational, and possibly dangerous.

“Um, the boar pit. Where is it? Where’s the boar pit?” Tuff demanded.

“You see, the centerpiece of any good outpost is a boar pit.”

“Why?” Reign scoffed, her expression quickly shifting from patient to concerned.

“Everybody needs a little entertainment every now and then, don’t they?” Rather than responding, Reign just blinked at Tuff, a little shocked at the tone he had taken with that.

“Well, we do know where to get boars,” Fishlegs shrugged.

Completely exasperated, I pat Toothless on his side, causing him to fire a plasma blast at the ‘S’ scratched into the dirt. Everyone jumped a little, staring at Reign and I with wide eyes.

“Oops, sorry about that.” I really didn’t even try to sound convincing.

“Okay, so, now that we have your attention, we really need to set up camp for the night.” Still, no one really moved.

“Wait, what about the—“ I stuck my arms up, silencing everyone from all ends.

“Ah-da-da-da! We’ll talk about the dragon outpost design in the morning. For now, someone needs to get the water.”

“Ugh,” Snotlout groaned. “I don’t know about you, but I like whiny Berk Hiccup way better than Princess Berk Hiccup.” Reign’s jaw dropped open a little.

“I know, right.” Astrid flashed us an awkward thumbs-up, as though to say she was on my side.

I just rolled my eyes and turned back to Toothless, unloading the rest of the materials from the saddle bag. Reign had decided to focus on clearing the area around us to make sure we could set up and sleep here for the night. After a moment, she realized I had my eyes on her, and she slowly turned to look at me, smiling.

“What?” she laughed. I made my way over to her, wrapping my arms around her waist and resting my chin on her shoulder.

“I’m just glad we’ve finally found a place to set up. It seems like all we’ve been doing is flying and running from things trying to kill us.”

“Mm, yeah,” she sighed, resting her cheek against the top of my head. “It’ll be nice to take a breather for once. Besides… living here for a little while doesn’t seem too bad.”

That reminded me…

I straightened again and turned Reign to face me. Almost immediately, her expression shifted, looking the same as whenever I fell off Toothless or did something reckless. I guess that second one had a lot more anger, but there was still concern.

“Everything okay, love?”

“Yeah, I just… remembered what I wanted to talk to you about when we were on the beach a couple days ago. You know, before the Deathsong fiasco.”

“Right, right, of course.” I could feel her hands begin to tremble as my heart pounded in my chest. Why was I so nervous? We’d been together for three years. This was just the next logical step.

But before I could get it out, the others came back, disrupting the moment. I groaned and leaned my head back against her shoulder, shaking it a couple times before I managed to pick it back up and help start a fire. Once we’d all finished dinner, the dragons fell fast asleep, and the crackling fire illuminated our faces. Reign laid her head against my chest as I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. pulling her closer. Just as we were getting comfortable, there was a rustling in the woods behind us, and Toothless’ head shot up.

“What is it, bud?” I asked, really trying to put him at ease. I doubted there was something out there that could get close enough to us with the traps Astrid had set up.

“I’ll tell you what it is. Rats,” Tuff taunted. “Rats the size of yaks. No, it could also—is it yaks the size of rats? Yakrats.” At this rate, everyone had lost interest in the tall tales Tuffnut was spinning. Still, he laughed, lost in his own imagination. “Wait, those would be adorable. No, no, I know what it is. It’s yaks the size of dragons. Right, Toothless? You feel me, T?” Toothless exhaled and laid his head back down.

“There’s no such thing as yaks the size of dragons,” Fishlegs chuckled. Tuff jumped down from his log and crept up behind Fishlegs and Astrid, causing the former to jump.

“Yakdragons to you, my friend. And when you’ve heard their cries, you’ll believe. Trust me. Mm-hmm.” He suddenly let out a loud, animalistic cry into the night sky. “That’s right. Let that roll around in your head for a minute.”

“All right, Tuffnut. Knock it off,” Reign scolded.

“Yeah, you’re not scaring anyone.” Tuffnut lunged forward, getting right up in Snotlout’s face.

“Really? What if there were… snakes out there in the dark? Hmm? Giant snakes? Snakes big enough to swallow a man whole and then barf out his bones? Blech!”

“Ha! Please. Barfing out bones.” Despite his feigned confidence, Snotlout reached out for one of Hookfang’s wings and pulled it in front of him, like a protective blanket.

“Yeah, that’s right, go to bed. Sleep… if you can.”

Finally, Tuffnut settled down and closed his eyes, allowing the rest of us to call it a night. The crackling warmth of the fire and Reign’s steady breathing lulled me into a comfortable sleep, but it didn’t last for long. The fire had enough time to go out, but smoke still floated off the logs as a scream echoed through the forest, causing everyone to shoot up. It felt like my heart was trying to claw its way out of my throat as I helped a barely-conscious Reign to her feet. Even when she stood up, she still looked like she was about to keel over, so I used my arm as support.

Tuffnut burst through the line of trees, branches and leaves sticking out of his clothes as his eyes frantically searched each of us.

“Chicken! Roaring!” he spat out between gasps. “Roaring huge chicken! Chicken roar!”

“Is he saying he saw a big, roaring chicken?” Fishlegs muttered.

“Not a chicken. Dragon. Huge! Massive. What’s another word? Colossal.”

“What happened to the chicken?”

“Forget the chicken! We’ve gotta get out of here.” I had to admit, despite his earlier antics, he genuinely seemed afraid of something.

“Is anyone falling for this?” Astrid sighed, yawning.

“I don’t know.” Ruff scratched the back of her head as she approached her brother. “I haven’t seen him this freaked out since he found a leech on his—“

“Okay, I’m gonna stop you there,” Reign interjected. “Ugh.”

“Okay, fine, let’s check this out,” I caved, “so we can all go back to sleep.” I helped make sure Reign didn’t fall over and kept walking as we followed Tuffnut into the clearing he’d come from.

“Okay, when this giant beast rips us limb from limb, I will expect a full apology from each and every one of you. And a handshake. No, you won’t be able to shake hands ‘cause your limbs will be gone.” Nearby, the leaves rustled. “Shh.” After a moment, Tuff leaped out from the bushes, scanning the environment around him. “Aah! Ha! Ha!” I rolled my eyes as a small chicken approached Tuffnut’s feet… and nothing more. “No! It was here, and it was huge,” he protested. “I’m not making this up.” He turned to the chicken. “Here, tell them. You were standing right there. Tell them, chicken.”

“Uh, you’re scaring me bro, okay?” Ruff carefully approached her brother. “And we shared a womb.”

Reign groaned again, nearly falling over from exhaustion, and I took that as the signal to give up and turn around. Once we got back to the camp, things finally settled down for the night, and after planting a kiss on the top of Reign’s head, we closed our eyes and fell back asleep.

Warm sunlight brought me out of sleep the next morning. As my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, I noticed everyone else had already woken up, and all of them were busy at work, seemingly perfecting their outpost designs. Reign had a perplexed look on her face as she and Astrid spoke to each other, using their bodies to shield their conversation from the others.

I stood up and stretched, letting out a big yawn that drew everyone’s attention to me for a moment. Reign broke away from Astrid and approached me with a smile on her face.

“’Morning,” she greeted, her voice lilting cheerily.

“Mm, good morning,” I sighed as I pulled her against my side. “Okay, now, let’s talk outpost ideas.” Immediately upon hearing that, Astrid came up to us and unraveled a piece of parchment she’d been holding.

“Since you brought it up, I’ve been working on my designs.” Honestly, the drawing looked like anarchy waiting to happen. “We’ll set up lookout posts with interlocking fields of fire and—“

“Never get any rest,” Fishlegs interrupted. “But here, in my meditation garden—“

“Neither of those is ‘S’ shaped.” Snotlout made a big show of storming over to Fishlegs’ design and staring at it. “Did you not see my design?”

“Boar pit!” Ruff chanted, popping up from behind Fishlegs and Snotlout. “Boar pit! Boar pit!”

I should have known that the moment I opened this can of worms, no one would be able to settle down, or listen to anyone else.

“Guys, guys, listen to me. We need one idea. We can’t design five different outposts.” Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. And it didn’t hurt that it would keep everyone occupied for quite a while. “Or… can we? You know what? Boar pit. Great idea.” Everyone’s jaws dropped, gawking at me and my sudden change of heart.

“Whoa. What just happened?”

“Oh. ‘S’ shape? I love it.”

“Don’t freak me out, Hiccup,” Snotlout whined. “It gives me the willies.”

“I’m just saying, let’s all come up with a design that we each think is the best, and then vote on it. Does that sound fair?” Instead of responding, everyone just blinked at me. Reign shifted a little, staring up at me with one brow raised.

“What are you up to?”

“Nothing, nothing at all.” I could tell she wasn’t buying it. “Just trying to keep the troops happy. You know what they say. Happy troops are, uh… happy groups?” Reign rolled her eyes, brushing off my excuse. “Hey, speaking of troops, Ruff, where’s your other half?”

“Don’t ask me,” she shrugged. “All I know is, this boar pit is not gonna dig itself.”

Everyone would be occupied for a while, and I had nothing else I had to take care of, so I decided I could take a little while to relax before everyone finished their designs. _That_ would be a completely different issue in and of itself.

Reign followed me as I made my way back over to Toothless and sat down, slumping down a little to rest against my dragon’s side. Gently, Reign sat down as well, smoothing her skirt a little before resting her legs over mine and leaning her head against my shoulder. I sighed happily and wrapped my arms around her waist.

“Do you hear that?” Toothless purred in response to the question. “That’s the sound of peace and quiet. You know, making them work together might just be the best idea I’ve ever had.”

That peace didn’t last, however, when Snotlout and Fishlegs both reached for the same rock. The latter managed to get it, leaving the former to glare at him for a moment before finally speaking his mind. 

“Uh, excuse me? _My_ rock.”

“Oh, how do you figure?” Fishlegs shot back.

“I need it! That rock makes the bottom of my ‘S’. And I need my ‘S’.”

“Really? Your ‘S’? Your genius architectural marvel,” Fishlegs deadpanned.

“Give me that rock,” Snotlout demanded. 

“Ah, since you put it like that…” Without even making an effort to try and look like he was going to hand the rock over, Fishlegs tossed it into Meatlug’s mouth. She chewed a few times, before swallowing once and immediately barfing out magma. “There. There’s your rock.” 

In response, Snotlout abruptly stood and stared down at Fishlegs’ design, before belly flopping on top of it, completely crushing the model.

“And there’s your architectural marvel.” Reign stood and offered a hand down to me, helping me up as I rolled my eyes.

“And I’ve spoken too soon.”

“I mean, on the bright side, it lasted a lot longer than I thought it would,” Reign admitted. When I didn’t react, she nudged me a little, finally eliciting a smile.

“Hey, Hiccup, I’m ready for a dry run.” Ruffnut sidled up beside me, pressing a little too close for comfort. “You wanna be the boar?”

I scoffed, completely disgusted by Ruffnut’s implications, while Reign leaned over my side a little and raised her eyebrow at the woman.

“Seriously?” Ruff backed up a little, appearing intimidated by Reign’s sudden anger.

Thankfully, before anything could go any further, Tuffnut returned from wherever he had disappeared to, covered in branches and slumped over in defeat as the chicken we’d found last night followed close behind him.

“Whoa? What happened to him?” his twin muttered. Tuffnut still refused to speak for a while, but once I handed him some water and he got a moment to relax, he spilled everything, including all the times he fell off the cliffs on the edge of the island.

“You’ve really been out there all day looking for that dragon?” I asked, still trying to put everything together.

“Instead of digging our boar pit?” Ruffnut elbowed me. “Priorities, right?”

“Or, maybe he really did see something,” I suggested.

“Oh, I saw something,” Tuff panted, setting the cup down and pointing in my direction. “You did, too, you little back-stabber.” I raised my eyebrows up as Tuffnut turned to the chicken. “Tell them.” As expected, the chicken just clucked. “Oh, save it. You had your chance.”

“Or this whole thing is a bunch of stinky yak dung?” Reign stepped back a little as Tuffnut shot up, glaring at his sister.

“You know? First of all, yak dung, when made into a nice tea, can be quite aromatic.”

“Agreed. But I still think you’re just trying to scare everybody. There’s no dragon out there.”

“Yeah, there is, Ruffnut. You willing to put your mutton where your mouth is?” Their angry expressions quickly turned to smirks.

“Oh, you’re not suggesting…”

“Oh, I am. I’m suggesting like a hot Gronckle in a lava pit. And you know exactly what that means.” I glanced down at Reign, who just looked equally as confused.

“What is going on with you two?” she sighed.

“Silence!” Ruffnut shouted.

“I officially declare Thorston challenge.”

“Thorston what?”

“Accepted!”

“Usual stakes?”

“Of course.”

“What stakes?” Finally, the twins turned to the two of us and addressed our question, though not in the way we hoped.

“It’s better you don’t know.” With that, the pair spit into their hands and shook, then made their way over to Barf and Belch and took off. Reign and I stood there for a moment, staring at them, when Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Astrid came running up behind us, fighting over yet another rock. They ended up nearly knocking Reign and I over, ironically giving us that extra push we needed to give up for a little while.

“I know, Reign,” I sighed, moving to take her hand as Toothless approached us, “I’m losing it, too.” I yanked her up onto Toothless, and we flew after the twins. “Ruff, Tuff, wait up! How about a couple of impartial judges for the Thorston challenge? For the love of Thor, take us with you!”

Thankfully, we eventually caught up with the twins, who kept flickering their eyes between the ground and the skies around us.

“So, are we just flying until we do or don’t find that dragon?” Reign asked, leaning over a little bit.

“Exact-amundo.” I felt her shrug as she moved closer against me. I could feel my stomach churning slightly, causing me to chuckle a little. Somehow, even after all these years, the littlest things Reign did still make me nervous.

“Then I guess this isn’t so bad,” she smiled. Carefully, I removed one of my hands from Toothless’ back and placed it over her own, moving my thumb up and down as the dragons glided over the island. We never really saw anything of interest, and as the sun set, I could feel Reign slumping down a little, indicating she was about to fall asleep. Not that I blamed her, we’d been flying all day.

Tuffnut, too, had fallen asleep, using that chicken as a pillow, and Ruff looked as though she were about to collapse at any moment. I managed to catch up just as Tuff lost his grip, only saved from falling when I grabbed onto him and hoisted him back up.

“And that’s where we should probably call it a night,” I suggested, though it really was more of a statement.

“Sure!” Ruff suddenly perked up, her tiredness falling away. “Since we never found that quote-unquote Yakdragon, declare me the winner of the Thorston challenge and we can all go home.” Sighing, I straightened up. Might as well so we could get back to our camp and get to bed.

“Uh, okay, sure. Um, by the power, uh, vested in me I hereby declare Ruffnut the winner of the—“

Toothless suddenly lurched backward as a loud, thundering roar shook the trees below us. My jaw dropped in disbelief when one of the biggest dragons I’ve ever seen shot up through the canopy, spreading its wings to intimidate us. There was something strange about the scale pattern on the dragon, but honestly, I was too concerned about the fact that the dragon was real to really worry about what looked strange.

“Whoa!” It circled overhead once before flying away. “I don’t believe it,” I gasped.

“Me, neither.” Ruff sounded much less excited. “Tuffnut wins the Thorston challenge.”

“Yes!” her brother cheered. “Told you. Now, pay up.”

“Guys, focus!” Reign shouted as the two of them began to kick and punch each other. “Look where it’s headed! Straight for our campsite. If it catches those guys asleep on the ground…” She shook her head, unable to finish. The twins exchange a smirk, before making Barf and Belch dive down to follow the dragon.

“Guys!”

“Just go!” Reign shoved me a little, pushing Toothless to follow the twins. The moment we caught up to them, they dove again, this time heading straight for the dragon.

“See you in Valhalla!” they cried.

The dragon halted in its flight and turned to face the twins right as they were about to crash into it. Strangely, instead of hitting it and falling to the ground, the dragon… broke into a bunch of smaller dragons?

“What in the name of--? It’s not one big dragon! It’s tons of little ones!” So _that’s_ why the scales looked so strange. It was the wings of all the dragons flapping.

The black dragons circled around a couple of times, seemingly lost, before a singular white one screeched, bringing them back together to form the bigger version of themselves again.

“They’re joining back up around that white one,” Ruff observed, pointing at the group of dragons.

“He must be the leader.” I looked back to see a wide smile on Reign’s face. “This is amazing.” Without warning, the twins rushed forward again.

“Guys, what are you doing?”

Seemingly from nowhere, the twins pulled out a net and flew through the group of dragons, catching the white one and tying the net shut to secure it.

“Bam! Problem solved!” Tuff declared. “All right, let’s head home.” As the twins headed back toward the camp, I felt this twisting in my gut.

“I don’t know about you, bud, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

We got back not long after the twins, who had already woken everyone else up to display the prize they’d captured. Fishlegs, Astrid, Reign, and I all crowded around the dragon, staring at it as it kicked its legs and screeched, attempting to get free from the net the twins had placed around it.

“Amazing,” Fishlegs marveled.

“It sort of looks like a Terrible Terror,” Astrid observed. “But bigger and meaner.”

“And it seems like they’re nocturnal,” I added. Everyone went silent, blinking at me as though I’d just spoken another language. “You know, they come out at night—“

“Yeah, I knew that,” Snotlout scoffed. “Noc-a-turnal. I was gonna explain that to them.”

The twins’ laughter drew everyone’s attention away from the dragon. I watched as they ran in circles, laughing and chasing the chicken around. Hard to believe those two had captured a dragon.

“I say we call them Night Terrors,” Fishlegs suggested. The chicken suddenly jumped into his arm, clucking and staring at him

“Hey, I saw him first,” Tuff protested, “so I get to name him.” The chicken clucked in his direction, as though it were trying to answer him. “No! You always say that. Now, let’s think about this logically. They come out at night and they’re terrifying. Terror of the night. I’ve got it! Smidvarg and the Gang.”

Everyone blinked at him, unsure of whether to dismiss it or at least pretend to encourage the idea.

“And Night Terrors it is,” I sighed.

Everyone jumped as a strangely familiar call echoed from somewhere far off on the island. The leader called out to the other Night Terrors, trying to move his wings and break out from the net. He almost seemed… distressed. Something was wrong.

“What’s going on out there?” Reign asked, looking up toward the horizon.

“I don’t know. But whatever it is, Smidvarg doesn’t like it, and the Gang ain’t paying attention.”

“Let’s check it out.”

We all hopped on our dragons and flew toward the source of the noises, keeping our eyes peeled in case something suddenly decided to jump out at us. At first, I really didn’t see anything out of the normal, until Reign called out for our attentions.

“Changewings!” she shouted, pointing toward the ground to the left. Sure enough, three Changewings circled around the group of Night Terrors, knocking into them and whipping them with their tails, as though they were taunting them before they went in for the kill. Toothless snarled at the scenario.

“I know, bud. Not exactly a fair fight, is it? Let’s even up the odds.”

Toothless fired a plasma blast at a Changewing chasing one of the Night Terrors, allowing the smaller dragon to get away. The Changewing turned and looked up at us for a moment, before activating its camouflage and completely disappearing. I frantically darted my eyes around, trying to find it, when spark erupted behind us, revealing another Changewing heading straight for us.

“No bullies on our island!” Astrid cried as she flew past us. Two more Changewings went down as Snotlout flew by them, allowing more of the Night Terrors to escape.

“Hey! You can’t treat our dragons like that!”

“Only _we_ can treat our dragons like that,” the twins finished as they ignited the Zippleback gas to chase off more of the hostile dragons.

“That should take care of them.”

Unfortunately, I spoke too soon. As those three Changewings flew away, nine more appeared off in the distance, heading straight for the island. Despite our high numbers, that was more than we could take on.

“But what about those guys?” Fishlegs pointed straight at them, his hand trembling. I removed my spyglass from the saddle pouch and looked out in their direction, just to be sure.

“Incoming!” I warned.

“How many?” Reign asked as she and Shriek flew up beside me.

“Too many!”

“Why are they all coming here now?” As I tried to think through what exactly could have caused this, one of the Night Terrors flew up toward me and screeched right in my face. It didn’t take much after that for me to put two and two together. “It must be the Night Terrors. When we captured the white one they all split up.”

“Oh, of course!” Fishlegs exclaimed, catching on. “They flock into a shape of a giant version of themselves as a defense mechanism to scare off predators. And now that they can’t…”

“They’re lunch,” Reign concluded.

“Oh, I knew this was gonna be bad. We have to help them. I’ll head back for the white Night Terror. He’s their leader. You guys hold them off as long as you can.”

I looped up and around, flying over the others and heading back toward the camp. Thankfully, the Night Terror leader hadn’t managed to move or get out of the net, so there wasn’t a chance for it to get lost. Toothless landed and I immediately jumped off, throwing the net off the Night Terror and allowing it to join the others. However, before it did, it screeched right in my ear, causing a loud ringing.

“Yeah, probably deserved that.”

The white Night Terror tried to get back as fast as possible, but two Changewings appeared behind it, snapping their jaws right on its tail. Toothless quickly shot two plasma blasts at it, but I couldn’t get on him fast enough. My eyes widened as one of the Changewings got a little too close, nearly grabbing onto the Night Terror…

…when, thankfully, a green line of gas came down and sparked, scaring off the Changewings.

“You leave our Smidvarg alone.”

“Great job.” I hovered in front of the twins. “Okay, you cover Smidvarg from behind, Toothless and I will lead the way.” The twins smirked at my use of the name they’d given him. “What? Okay, so it’s growing on me.”

By the time we reached the rest of the group, they looked as though they were about to collapse, strewn out on rocks and the ground with their dragons panting. Smidvarg reached the rest of the Night Terrors just in time, joining up with them and leading them into the right formation. The Changewings halted their attacks and the Night Terrors roared, taking off not a moment later and flying further and further from the island.

“What’s this?” Astrid asked as she leaned over, studying the piece of parchment I’d drawn up last night.

“A diagram of our new outpost.” I smiled as Reign stood next to me. “I got the idea from Smidvarg. So, see, I combined all of your ideas into one giant base. And I was thinking we could call it the Dragon’s Edge. What do you guys think?” Thankfully, all of them nodded. “Okay, I just need to point out that this is the first time that has ever happened. Let’s take a look.” Everyone crowded around and crouched down as I pointed to various points on the drawing. “Everybody gets to make their section of Dragon’s Edge whatever they want it to be. Astrid, you can make yours the most heavily-armed bedroom in the known Viking world. And, Fishlegs, your place is quiet and secluded, overlooking the ocean, very serene, very relaxing, with lots of room for your very own rock garden. Snotlout, your spot is up here. Now, it’s not ‘S’-shaped, but you can go ‘S’ crazy and paint them all over it.”

“Yeah, I can! Snotlout!”

“Boar pit!” the twins chanted, popping up on each side of Snotlout. “Boar pit! Boar pit!”

“Yes, yes, aha! Glad you brought that up. There’s a space for one right underneath your hut. Just do me a favor and lock up the boars after you’re done with them.”

“Aww.”

“You do care,” Tuff teased.

“We’ll connect the different sections with bridges, zip lines and gangplanks. We’ll have really cool stables with our own landing strip. And, of course, a dragon training arena. And in the center, overlooking everything else, will be the clubhouse, the eye of Dragon’s Edge.”

Without any sort of prompting, everyone got to work, clearly eager to build their sections. I stood there for a moment, taking in the fact that my plan had _actually_ worked, when I felt a pair of arms snake around my waist.

“Congratulations on getting them to all agree to something,” Reign complimented as she rested her head on my shoulder. “Now, I have a question.”

“Mm?”

“Why do I only see five huts on that plan?” I could feel my hands shake a little. Sure, it wasn’t a mistake, but if I had misjudged things, more than anything, it would just be awkward.

“Well, I was thinking, now that we have this new outpost and all, maybe the two of us would just need one hut?” Reign laughed a little as she turned me to face her.

“Is that your way of saying you think we should move in together?”

“O-Only if you want to. I know that’s a lot, and I didn’t know where you were at, but I thought I’d at least—“ She cut me off by kissing me briefly.

“Hiccup, of _course_ I want to. Thor, you worry too much.” A smile overwhelmed my face as I pulled her against me. “I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you, too.”

The day passed quickly, filled with working on huts and the rest of the outpost. Darkness had fallen all-too-quickly, and we were forced to stop working for the day.

“It’s really taking shape,” I commented, looking around at the little perches we’d built. “And now for one more addition to our new outpost… Tuff?” I gestured down to him, but he was too preoccupied with the chicken to notice.

“That’s right.” It took him a moment to notice we were all looking at him, but once he did, he stopped dead in what he was doing. “Uh… what? Oh. Smidvarg!” The chicken lunged up a little and started pecking at his face, causing his twin to laugh. “Ow! Oh, oh, what? I’m not allowed to have friends now?”

Smidvarg twirled in the air a little, as though showing off, before landing on one of the dragon perches we had built.

“Well, if we’re gonna share the island with them, I thought we should share the outpost, too,” I reasoned.

“Plus, it doesn’t hurt that they seem to have a natural instinct to protect.”

“They’ll be like sentries. Right, Smidvarg?” Smidvarg cocked his head, squawking a little. “Okay, so, the Thorston challenge—When is Ruffnut gonna pay up?”

“She already has. Can’t you tell? I mean, look at her.” Ruffnut had her chin resting in her hands, mouth twisted into a frown. “She lost, so she had to swap clothes with me.” Ruff shifted a little to prove she was wearing her brother’s clothes. But since there were only two of them, didn’t that mean…?

“Right. And if you had lost?”

“Ugh. I’d have to swap clothes with _her_.”

“Yeah, but you guys are exactly, uh—“

“Don’t go there,” Reign interrupted, slapping a hand over my mouth.

Smidvarg’s screech drew all of us away from the twins. The other Night Terrors came up from the caves below, circling around Toothless a few times.

“What are they doing now?”

“I have no idea,” Fishlegs admitted.

Smidvarg jumped off of the perch and flew up to the other Night Terrors, leading them up and into a new formation.

“Hiccup, look.” My jaw dropped a little as they took on the shape of a Night Fury.

“Whoa! Awesome!”

“Amazing.”

“Impressive.”

Toothless got up on his hind legs, tilting his head back and forth at the sight of the Night Terrors before turning to face the rest of us, a smile on his face. I couldn’t help but laugh at how happy he was, as Reign linked one of her arms with mine.

I really could get used to this sort of life


	6. Big Man on Berk (Reign)

I tightened my grip on Shriek’s back and tugged a little, attempting to keep her in formation as our group flew over the ocean. There came days where she was particularly rebellious, but of course, she had to pick a day when we had to be extremely careful.

“All right, gang,” Hiccup called back to all of us, “we’ll buzz past the Scauldron and draw its attention so Astrid, Ruff and Tuff and net it from behind and drag it out to sea, got it?”

“I think we should blast it!” Of course, Tuffnut had the most violent suggestion.

“Stoick just wants us to move the Scauldron out of Berk’s fishing lanes, so don’t get any crazy ideas,” I warned.

“Uh, sorry. Crazy is what we do, Reign. Duh!” My breath hitched for a moment as Ruff turned herself upside down on her dragon’s head. Thankfully, my view was obstructed by Fishlegs flying by, and Ruff up righted herself again. 

“You guys do realize that your Scauldron’s hot water blast can rip the scales right off a Screaming Death?” Fishlegs quivered.

Right then, the head of the Scauldron appeared from underneath the water, heading in the direction of our fishing boats. We needed to stop that thing fast, before it got a little too close for comfort.

“There it is,” Hiccup called back to the rest of us. “Let’s focus, guys.”

Astrid removed the net from the hook on Stormfly’s saddle and tossed it toward the twins, while I fell back a little and kept watch from behind. It was a dangerous position to take, considering I could either get caught in the net, or easily hit by the Scauldron’s blast, but I could get out of the way quick enough if it came down to it.

“One…”

I leaned forward a little more, preparing for either scenario.

“…two…”

Astrid adjusted her grip on the ropes of the net to make sure it wouldn’t slip out.

“…three!”

Suddenly, Fishlegs sneezed so violently that Meatlug was startled to the point where she flew back a little bit. Completely skittish, she fluttered around helplessly, turning and spiraling out of control, until she slammed into Snotlout and knocked him off Hookfang’s back. Thankfully, he landed in the net, so we could get him back without much hassle. The noise startled the Scauldron and drew its attention to us, meaning all of this had been lost.

“Abort! Abort!” As Hiccup tried to get us to turn around, Fishlegs and Meatlug crashed into him.

The Scauldron got just close enough to Snotlout to nearly take his head off, but thankfully, at the last minute, Hiccup and Toothless got back up and knocked into it, drawing its attention away from Snotlout. After a single plasma blast, the Scauldron disappeared back into the water.

“Oh, I see how it is. _You’re_ allowed to blast it.”

“Not the time, Tuff,” I groaned. With the Scauldron temporarily appeased, we headed back toward Berk. The moment we landed, Astrid and the twins released Snotlout from the net, while I approached Hiccup, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?” He smiled at me, then reached up and took my hand.

“Perfectly fine.”

“You and your snot-rockets almost got me killed!” Snotlout waved his arms wildly, as though he were trying to signal someone for help.

“Calm down, Snotlout. You lived. Yay us,” Astrid deadpanned.

“No thanks to Itch-legs over there.” Snotlout gestured to Fishlegs, who admittedly had been scratching for an abnormally long amount of time, in a very erratic fashion.

“It’s so weird. I mean, I never… oh… ever…” He sneezed violently again, this time right in Meatlug’s face. I gagged a little, stepping back behind Hiccup, using him as a shield against the germs. “…get sick.” Immediately, Fishlegs went back to scratching, causing everyone to grimace.

“Dig deeper. See if you can draw blood.”

Correction, everyone except the twins.

“Well, something’s clearly not right with you,” Hiccup reasoned. Fishlegs halted scratching just long enough to speak to us.

“I don’t see what the big deal is, okay?” He really didn’t seem that convinced himself. “Everybody sneezes and scratches sometimes.”

“Not like a honey-covered yak on an anthill.” We all slowly turned to look at Tuff, wearing confused expressions. “What? You’ve never seen a honey-covered yak on an anthill? Well, those things scratch. It’s terrifying. Those horrors haunt my dreams.” Tuff’s usual dramatics weren’t exactly welcome today, not when we had bigger things to worry about.

Then again, everything was more important than Tuff being dramatic.

“I don’t feel sick, okay?” Fishlegs insisted. “I promise, I’m fine.” Hiccup and I turned our eyes away as Fishlegs began to use Meatlug as a back scratcher. This was getting harder to watch every moment.

“Ugh,” I grunted. “Well, maybe you’re just allergic to something.”

“Uh, that’s impossible. Allergies don’t run in the Ingerman family. I’m clean, serene and—“

“And an itchin’ machine,” Ruff finished.

“Might I interject? We at the Thorston house have a very simple allergen detection system. It has never failed.” Ruff leaned around over the side of her brother.

“That’s a system?”

“It is now.” Part of me was suspicious about all of this, but if there was a chance it could help Fishlegs out, I suppose it was worth it.

“All right, let’s all meet up at the old Academy, then.”

It wasn’t long after the rest of us reached the Academy that the twins met us, carrying a bunch of strange and foul-smelling objects. I was pretty far away from the source, but the pungent scent still burned my nostrils. Tuff approached Fishlegs and held up a brown, yellow, and green egg—definitely not how that was supposed to look.

“Thousand-year-old egg,” Tuff announced. “Slam this down your gullet.” Though Fishlegs backed away and grimaced for a moment, he eventually reached out, grabbed it, and took a large bite. Strangely enough, his expression relaxed, and he even shrugged.

“Oh, it could use a little sea salt.” Tuff’s shoulders slumped, clearly disappointed he didn’t throw up.

“What about this?” Ruff approached Fishlegs and stuck something all over his face, then stepped back, as though admiring artwork. “Yak hair. Takes itchy to a whole new level.”

“Not really.” Fishlegs reached up and stroked the little balls of hair. “Feels kind of like my old Aunt Gerta. She used to—“

“No,” Hiccup interjected, sticking his arms out, “I’d like to be able to sleep tonight.”

“Spoiled, coagulated goat milk with just a pinch of hoof jam.” Tuff presented Fishlegs with the wooden cup. “I find it changes the whole experience.” Without hesitation, Fishlegs held the cup over his mouth. It took a moment for the cylindrical chunk to slide out, but once it did, he somehow managed to swallow it whole.

“Oh, that is… cheesy and delicious.”

“Ugh!” Astrid, Hiccup, Snotlout, and I collectively shrunk back.

“I’m telling you, I’ve never been allergic to anything.” Fishlegs picked up the boulder next to Meatlug and tossed it into her mouth, and not but a moment later, sneezed yet again. That… couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Huh.” Fishlegs noticed the way I was looking at him, and suddenly tensed up a little.

“What? What is it?”

“Fishlegs, I think you might be allergic to… Meatlug.” Still, despite the evidence, a few things didn’t add up. After all, this hadn’t ever happened before.

“Why, all of a sudden, would he be allergic to Meatlug?” It was as though Astrid read my mind.

“Perhaps it’s just a simple case of adult-onset allergies,” Tuff suggested.

“Ah, I concur with your diagnosis, Dr. Nut.”

“I concur with you concur-ation.” I furrowed my brows and shook my head, frustrated with the twins’ talking in circles.

“Adult-onset allergies develop in your elder years when your immune system mistakenly identifies a dangerous substance.” Ruff and Tuff’s potpourri of knowledge really just baffled me sometimes.

“Don’t be silly,” Fishlegs dismissed as he pet Meatlug. “There’s no way I’m—“ He began to scratch and sniffle again. “…allergic to Meat—“ A sneeze interrupted his protests. Ruffnut grabbed onto the Viking’s head and pushed him against his dragon, causing him to sneeze hysterically.

“Oh, yeah, diagnosis confirmed.” Cautiously, Hiccup approached Fishlegs, careful to make sure the latter was done sneezing before he got to close.

“Fishlegs, there’s only one person that might actually be able to help.”

Fishlegs shuddered a little, clearly afraid of going to see her, but we really didn’t have much of a choice. If Fishlegs couldn’t ride Meatlug without sneezing, then he wouldn’t be able to fly with us. And we needed him with us. Not only did he have information on dragons that sometimes saved our lives, but he really helped balance the twins and Snotlout out.

We managed to convince him to come with us, but when we arrived, Gothi was completely in her own world, swinging her staff around in a controlled manner with her eyes closed. Gobber just waited patiently for her to finish, clearly used to this sort of thing, while Snotlout tapped his foot impatiently.

“Ohh, I gotta see this,” he cackled. Gothi suddenly shot her eyes open and began to scribble on the sand patch in front of her.

“What’s she saying?” Fishlegs asked, tilting his head as he studied the symbols.

“Huh,” was all Gobber muttered at first.

“What? _What_?”

“She wants to paralyze you.” Fear flashed over Fishlegs’ eyes, before Gothi hit Gobber over the head, trying to correct him. “Aah! Check that. Hypnotize. Sorry, she wants to hypnotize you.”

“Uhh, come on,” Snotlout sighed. Gothi shoved her staff in Fishlegs’ face, slowly twirling it in circles in an attempt to put him under. He chuckled awkwardly, as though he were nervous about something.

“Unfortunately, guys, this is never gonna work on me because I’m way too—“ Before he could finish, his posture slumped, and he began to collapse. “Okay.” Once he laid down on the wood, his eyes fluttered shut, and honestly, his snoring was the only thing indicating that Gothi hadn’t managed to knock Fishlegs off somehow.

“Unconscious? Ha!” Snotlout leaned over Fishlegs, a smirk on his face. “Quick, put his hands in warm water.” I made my way over and smacked Snotlout’s back.

“We’re not going to do that,” I scolded.

“Okay, now that he’s under, she wants us to tell him that he’s not allergic to Meatlug,” Gobber informed us.

“Does that really work?” Snotlout asked, his tone skeptical as Hiccup made his way over to Fishlegs and crouched down beside him.

“I guess we’ll find out. Here goes.” Hiccup suddenly took on a tone that, I’m sure, seemed appropriate in his head. But, honestly, it just sounded completely ridiculous. “Fishlegs, you are not allergic to Meatlug.” He waved his hands over his friend’s face. “You are _not_ allergic to Meatlug.”

I couldn’t hold it back for another second. Completely disregarding the entire situation, I burst into laughter, slapping a hand over my mouth as I tried my best to calm down. Hiccup raised an eyebrow, staring up at me, before a playful smile crossed his face and he stood up, moving around Fishlegs.

“Oh, what? You didn’t like the voice?” I shook my head fervently, biting my lip in an attempt to get the giggles to stop.

“I think that’s the most ridiculous you’ve ever sounded,” I gasped out.

“What? I think it was perfectly reasonable, given the scenario.”

“No!” I cried, completely lost in our little sketch at this point. “Seriously, I don’t know how you can do that voice and not laugh.”

“Personally, I think that’s the voice I should use all the time—when we’re planning dragon rescues, when we’re making dinner, when I ask you to marry me—because honestly, I think it’s perfect for everything.”

I stopped laughing, suddenly, completely processing what he just said. Had he really… just thrown that in so casually? I mean, we’d never talked about it before between the two of us, and now, all of a sudden, he sounded so completely sure.

“Reign, love, you okay?” I snapped back to reality, only to notice everyone was staring at Hiccup and I.

“Sorry, I just… you just said… I mean, we haven’t even talked about that before, and now—“ I crossed my arms and looked down at my feet, hitting my heels together in an attempt to do something. “Can we just talk about this later?” He raised an eyebrow, but slowly backed away.

“Okay…”

“So, that’s it?” Snotlout asked out of nowhere, clearly trying to break up the tension.

“Hypnosis is very powerful,” I shrugged, in an attempt to show I’d moved on from the awkwardness just a moment earlier. “Okay, let’s bring him out of it.”

“Now, now, now, hang on a second. We’ve got an opportunity here.” I didn’t like the way Snotlout rubbed his hands together. “We can rebuild Fish-face. We can turn him into a worshipped Viking, a fearless godlike hero… as strong as three yaks!” Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Fishlegs sit up. That couldn’t be good… “A Viking who commands attention! In other words, a Viking worthy of my friendship.”

“Uh, yeah, sorry Snotlout, we’re not doing any of that.” Hiccup shut him down just as quickly as he started. “You can bring him out of it now.” Gothi moved to stand in front of him and snapped her fingers.

Something wasn’t right as Fishlegs stood. Normally, he slouched a little, but now, he was about as straight and tall as he could manage. He began to crack his joints and roll his shoulders, before finally turning to face us. There was a fire in his eyes I’d never seen before, one that made him… menacing.

“Fishlegs?” Immediately, his expression soured even further.

“Fishlegs?” His voice sounded strange; he’d taken on some sort of strange accent. “There’s no Fishlegs here.” He pushed Hiccup and Snotlout aside as he strode over to Meatlug, and glared down at her. “Who is this pudgy little reptile?” My heart broke as Meatlug whimpered and curled up a little.

“That was a bit harsh,” Gobber grunted.

“Fishlegs, are you all right?” Hiccup asked gently, unsure of what would happen if he raised his voice too much.

“Are you deaf, skinny, one-legged boy?” Anger pulsed through me for a moment, and I took a step up to tell him off, but Hiccup extended an arm out in front of me, blocking me from moving any further. I was left to watch as Fishlegs ripped Gothi’s staff from her hands and snapped it in half, before chucking it into the sea behind us. “The name’s Bonecrusher. Thor Bonecrusher.”

It finally hit me what exactly had happened. My anger turned from Fishlegs to Snotlout, but before I could chew him out, Hiccup spoke up for me.

“Snotlout, do you realize what you’ve done?” He grabbed onto the man’s arm, shaking him in an attempt to get him to look in our direction. “You fool, you’ve created—“ Without so much as a passing glance, Snotlout shoved Hiccup back as he approached Fishlegs- er, Thor. The only reason Hiccup didn’t fall over was because I managed to catch him at the last minute.

“My very own super-Viking—Thor flipping Bonecrusher! I love it!” I shook my head.

“I can’t see this going well.” I turned to face Hiccup, still a little wary about meeting his eyes. “I’m going to go find Astrid, you guys keep an eye on… Thor over there, okay?”

Without really waiting for a response, I climbed down the ladder and headed toward the Hofferson family hut, finding Astrid tending to Stormfly in their dragon stables.

“Hey, you’re back.” She set down the bucket she’d been using to fill the water trough. “How’d it go?”

“Well, uh, I’m pretty sure Meatlug’s not going to be an issue anymore… because he doesn’t think she’s a dragon worth his time anymore.” Astrid’s eyebrows flew up on her head.

“What?”

“Snotlout kinda broke Fishlegs,” I explained. “Except, he might try to kill you if you call him Fishlegs.” 

“Reign, what? You’re not making any sense.” I waved my arms up a bit.

“This whole scenario isn’t making sense!” I took a breath, giving myself a moment to get it together before continuing. “When Fishlegs was under, Snotlout started talking about making Fishlegs into this macho, fearless Viking, and apparently, he took it to heart. So now he thinks his name is Thor Bonecrusher, and that he’s some god of a Viking.”

Astrid snatched her axe up and attached it to her belt, indicating she was ready to head out. I moved my mouth a bit, trying to form words, before finally getting the other thing on my mind out.

“Hiccup brought up getting married today… in front of everyone.”

Astrid immediately halted in her tracks, staring at me with wide eyes as I caught up to her.

“Whoa. What—what happened? What did you—“

“He did this weird voice when he was giving Fishlegs the hypnotic suggestion, and I started making fun of him, and then he joked that he was going to use that voice when he asked me to marry him.” I shook my head. “It was just so awkward and uncomfortable. I mean, other people have asked me about it, but he and I have never talked about getting married before. It just kind of came out of left field.” Astrid reached over and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into a supportive hug.

“You guys have been together for this long. You’ve really never even mentioned it before?”

“It’s a relatively new idea in our relationship,” I shrugged. “I’m sure we were going to get to it eventually, but to know that he’s clearly had someone in his ear about this whole thing, too… it makes me realize right now is too soon. I mean, there’s so much going on, and we’re still pretty young… I know most couples our age are already getting married, but I just can’t do it right now.”

“So say that to him.” I reeled my head back a little, not used to Astrid using such a stern tone with me. “He loves you, Reign, more than anyone else. Telling him you want to wait to get married isn’t going to scare him away, I can guarantee it. And if, for whatever reason, he doesn’t understand, then he really isn’t worth your time.” I smiled again and rested my head on Astrid’s shoulder, feeling warm and comforted in the moment of uncertainty.

“Thanks, Astrid. I’m glad I can come to you.”

“Whenever you need me.”

It wasn’t long after that when we caught up with the others. Thor strode confidently, chin held high as Snotlout, Hiccup, Astrid and I followed behind him, making sure he wouldn’t do something that would get him into trouble.

“I already filled her in on everything,” I whispered to Hiccup. He nodded at me, almost looking as though he was forcing a smile before turning back to Thor.

“And Gothi can’t just turn him back?” she asked, trying to clarify the one thing I hadn’t explained.

“Not without her staff,” Hiccup sighed, “which Thor Bonecrusher crushed and threw off the cliff.” Snotlout picked up his speed a little bit, trying to catch up with Thor’s large strides.

“So, TB, you’re not afraid of anything, huh?” Snotlout asked nervously. In a split second, his demeanor switched, and he removed his sword from its sheath, pretending to attempt to stab Thor. Rather than his normal squeal and running away, Thor just grabbed the blade between his hands before throwing the sword away.

“Ha! Child’s play.”

“How about fire?” Snotlout held up a flaming torch right in Thor’s face, but he didn’t even flinch.

“I scoff at fire!” he declared, slapping the torch out of Snotlout’s hand. Consequently, the strike had been so strong, that the torch slammed against a hut, igniting the wood it was made out of and causing it to go up in flames. The woman that lived in the hut came running out, waving her arms with her mouth agape.

“Fire!” she screamed. “My house is on fire! Someone threw a torch on my house!”

“Perfect,” Thor’s voice boomed over the roaring flames, “a call to action!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Thor bounded toward the flaming hut, throwing open the door and disappearing into the smoke. I stared with wide eyes, concerned that his strength was still Fishlegs level, but only a few moments later, he kicked the door again, emerging with a sheep and the woman who lived there under his arms. The surrounding villagers cheered started to cheer, but Thor stuck his arms up to silence them.

“Please hold your applause until the end of the rescue.” After scanning the environment around him, Thor went for a water trough and hurled it at the burning hut, completely dousing the flames. “You may commence.”

The villagers resumed their cheering, seemingly slightly confused that Fishlegs, of all people, had performed such a heroic act, but it was at least a little clear from his body language that something about him was different. The woman he had just rescued approached him, a grateful smile on her face.

“Fishlegs…” Immediately, Thor snapped his gaze to her, brows furrowed.

“Fishlegs? Why does everybody keep calling me Fishlegs?” The woman’s thankful expression soon melted into confusion.

“But, you’re Fishlegs… Fishlegs,” she insisted.

“Nonsense, crone!” Thor barked, running up to a nearby stump and stepping up onto it. “People of Berk… It is with great pleasure that I announce the arrival of me, Thor Bonecrusher; the most universally feared and loved Viking in all the land is here to enchant you with my presence.” I moved my eyes to Hiccup as more Vikings rushed over to Thor, the two of us exchanging a worried glance.

“Oh! Look out!” a Viking from up the hill called. “The cart!”

An apple cart started barreling toward an unsuspecting baby, beginning to cry within its carriage, as though it knew something was coming right for it. While most villagers gasped and gawked, Thor jumped off of the stump, somehow doing a flip in the air, almost making himself into a sort of cannonball.

“What?” Hiccup gasped, just as confused as the rest of us.

Thor landed right in front of the baby’s carriage just seconds before the apple cart reached the two of them. Kicking one leg back, he launched the baby into the air and caught it with one hand, kissing its forehead once before tossing it to the mother. The way he stood his ground was enough to stop the apple cart the moment it collided with him, causing the apples to go flying and leaving him completely unharmed. And, of course, as the finishing touch, he caught the apples right back in the cart.

“Did you see that?” Snotlout gasped, completely mystified by what he’d created. “That was incredible! He ran, and then did a flip and then a toss and then a thing, and then flipped into the other thing. Ohh! He’s amazing!” I was starting to get real fed up with all of Snotlout’s gushing.

“Is it me, or did Snotlout just fall in love with Fishlegs?” Astrid whispered to Hiccup and I. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Hiccup ever-so-subtly nod.

“Bonecrusher! Bonecrusher! Bonecrusher!” The chanting continued for only a moment, until Thor seemed to hear something far off, shushing the crowd surrounding him.

“Thor hears the sound of a baby yak in trouble.”

Rather than following him, like the rest of the crowd, the three of us all shook our heads. Chasing after him was like watching a child, and honestly, I just didn’t have the energy for that at this point. The twins already wore down my patience most days.

“We need to figure out how to fix this, before he does something dangerous,” I insisted, already whistling for Shriek. 

“Reign, without the staff—“ I turned around and crossed my arms, raising an eyebrow at Hiccup.

“Come on, you can’t believe that’s the only option. There _has_ to be something else.” I got up on Shriek’s back, prompting Hiccup and Astrid to summon their dragons. “Let’s talk to Gobber, see if we can get anything out of him.”

The three of us took off toward Gobber’s smithy, only to find that Snotlout and Thor were already there, seemingly perusing weapons. Snotlout snatched up a little knife laying out on one of the counters, presenting it to Thor.

“Uh, how about this one?” Thor turned it in his fingers a few times, assessing the presented weapon.

“Oh, that’s perfect… for removing splinters,” Thor scoffed, before chucking it a little too close to Gobber for comfort. Only slightly deterred, Snotlout rushed to Gobber’s display of swords, grabbing a random one off the rack.

“What about this one?” Thor held it up and looked down the blade after swinging it a few times. “You can use it to annihilate your enemies.”

“No one should be annihilating anything,” I sighed.

“That’s a nice handle, I suppose…” Thor scoffed. “…if I had wee lady hands.” Gobber’s jaw dropped slightly, gawking at the man formerly known as Fishlegs.

“I made that handle with my best leather.” I tensed as Gobber marched over to Thor, his brows furrowed so far down, I could barely see his eyes.

Thor, however, wasn’t at all focused on Gobber’s lecture. Instead, his eyes honed in on the axe in the man’s hands, watching with wide eyes and a devious smile as Gobber swung it around slightly.

“Ahh.” Without asking, Thor reached out and snatched the axe out of Gobber’s hand, admiring it. “Now, this. _This_ is an axe for a Viking.”

“That’s Stoick’s axe,” Gobber protested. Thor proceeded to swing the axe a few times, nearly taking Snotlout’s head off.

“Correction: this _was_ Stoick’s axe.” I glanced at Hiccup warily. Of all the people on Berk to take a weapon from, Stoick was the absolute last anyone should ever consider.

“Uh, okay, uh, Fishlegs?” Hiccup jumped slightly as Thor whipped around and glared at him, angered by the use of his former name. “I mean… Bonecrusher. Stoick isn’t exactly the kind of chief that likes to share his things, especially his axe.”

“Neither do I. If this Stoick fellow wants it, he can always try and take it back from me.” Thor strode confidently away from us, seemingly heading toward the Great Hall.

“Oh, man!” Snotlout cried, though he didn’t sound disappointed or worried by any means. “He just totally called out Stoick! How much do we love this guy?”

Meatlug whined again, shrinking back behind Hiccup and I. I glanced down at her sadly before bringing my eyes back up to Hiccup, who kept bouncing his around, indicating the wheels in his brain were turning way too quickly.

“Okay, this is getting out of hand. We need to get Thor Bonecrusher back to Gothi before we lose Fishlegs forever,” I stated.

“I totally agree.” I turned to glace at Gobber, who stood between Hiccup and I. I wondered if he remembered what he witnessed earlier. “Just one question. Where’d he go?”

“I think I saw him heading for the Great Hall,” I answered quickly. “We should get there before he runs off again.” Before we could start moving, Astrid turned to me.

“It’s getting kind of late, I have to get back and give Stormfly her dinner. Can you guys handle this on your own?” I nodded.

“Yeah, we’ll be able to wrangle him.” Just as Hiccup and Gobber started to walk away, Astrid grabbed my arm and yanked me back. 

“Talk to him,” she hissed. “You can sense the tension from outside the Archipelago.” I pulled my arm away.

“Okay, okay, fine, I will. Now might just not be the right time, but I promise once this situation is resolved, we’ll talk things out.”

I pat Meatlug’s side, trying to urge her to follow us, but she wouldn’t budge. Instead, her head lowered, as though she didn’t have the energy to move any more. I had to resort to attempting to pick her up in order to get her on her feet again, and thankfully, after that, she followed along behind us again. Poor Meatlug. I’d never seen her so sad before. She’d been tossed aside by someone she was loyal to and loved by; I could only imagine how much that hurt.

I could hear a booming voice and thunderous laughter radiating from the Great Hall—an indication that Thor had, indeed, made his way there, and somehow managed to draw in a crowd as well. Meatlug beat Hiccup, Gobber, and I inside, but once she took in what was happening, she shrunk down again.

“Poor Meatlug,” Gobber lamented. “Wouldn’t even wear her saddle. Look at her. So lonely. We’ve got to do something with her.”

“Reign and I will take care of Meatlug,” Hiccup volunteered.

“My chances of survival were slim.” Our eyes moved up to Thor, poised on one of the dining tables as though he was about to pounce on something. “I only had one option.”

“Ah, ooh, oh, oh! Fly away?” Thor cast an angry glance at the Viking who suggested that.

“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that,” he scoffed.

“Sorry,” the Viking muttered.

“No, I had something very special in store for that Scauldron. As my fellow riders cowered, I bravely got in close to the large dragon, sneaking up behind him. I got right up close, close enough to smell the reeking, rotting fish it had eaten that day. I raised my axe over my head, and swiftly—“ I flinched as Thor jumped down, slicing one of the tables clean in half. “He narrowly escaped. However, next time, victory shall be mine!” The spectating Vikings cheered as Thor hoisted the stolen axe in the air, as though already declaring victory over something we wouldn’t let him get away with in the first place.

“Put me in your next story!” Snotlout begged, waving his arm in an attempt to get Thor’s attention. “Just as the background. But please?”

“Fishlegs! Is that my axe?”

My heart stopped momentarily as Stoick began to stride toward the Viking standing in front of him, very clearly holding that axe. It was only a matter of time before Stoick figured out what was happening, but I guess Hiccup and I had just hoped we’d have been able to snap Fishlegs out of this by now and just say that the axe took a long while for Gobber to sharpen.

Unfortunately, that was now out the window.

“Uh, Dad, that’s not _Fishlegs_ Fishlegs,” Hiccup attempted to explain as he stepped in front of his father.

“Don’t be daft. I’m looking right at him, holding my axe, by the way,” Stoick snarled.

“Ah, you must be Stoick the Vast…ly overrated,” Thor taunted. My shoulders tensed slightly, eyes darting between Thor and Stoick.

“What did you call me?” Stoick demanded. He pushed his son to the side, only prevented from falling by me acting fast and managing to catch him by his underarms... for the second time that day. “What did he call me?”

“That’s what Hiccup’s trying to tell you. He’s not himself,” I insisted.

“Give me back my axe!” I shook my head. Once Stoick’s anger started to rise, nothing could deter him from solving the issue… typically with violence, unfortunately for everyone here.

“Don’t you mean _my_ axe?” Stoick’s hands balled into fists as his eyes nearly lit aflame.

“He was just polishing it for you, Chief.” Gobber rushed over to his friend’s side, trying to get him to calm down.

“Let us handle this. Reign and I will get your axe back to you, I promise.” Stoick hesitated for a moment, but thankfully, he gave in, though his expression still looked like he was about to kill Thor.

“Fine, but make it quick, or I’ll take it from him myself.” I subtly waved my hand, urging Gobber to take Stoick away from this situation. He obliged, managing to turn Stoick around and start to walk him out of the Great Hall.

“Chief, let’s get out of here. How about a nice piece of mutton?”

Once they had gone, I sighed and ran my hands through my hair, turning to Hiccup. The air had been awkward since this afternoon, but that really didn’t matter at the moment.

“Should we call it a night?” Hiccup asked quietly, placing a hand on my back. I nervously glanced back at Thor Bonecrusher, who had resumed telling tall tales.

“You sure we should leave Thor without some sort of supervision? I mean, who knows what he’ll get up to overnight…” Hiccup chuckled and moved his other arm around my waist.

“I’m sure he’ll tucker himself out eventually. Besides, he doesn’t have a dragon he deems adequate for him to ride, so he can’t really go anywhere.” He sighed, hesitating a moment before speaking again. “Plus, I think there’s something we need to talk about.” I deflated slightly.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get out of here.”

The walk back to the Haddock household was silent and strangely awkward, but hopefully, that would be fixed soon. Even though Stoick wasn’t home, we still waited until we got upstairs to say anything. Both of us sort of stood there, awkwardly glancing at each other every now and then, before I took a deep breath, swallowed down the dread settling in me, and prepared to say something.

That was, until Hiccup beat me to the punch.

“Reign, I wasn’t trying to make you feel like we absolutely _have_ to get married someday.” I shook my head, holding back the urge to laugh a little.

“That’s not what freaked me out, Hiccup.” Slowly, I sat down on the bed, watching as he started to mess with one of the drawings pinned up on his wall. Toothless fired a slow burn onto the stone he slept on, turning in circles before curling up and starting to drift asleep. “Look, Hiccup, it’s not that I never want to marry you, it’s just that now isn’t the right time.” He finally looked away from the desk and came to sit across from me. “I mean, we’re just starting to establish Dragon’s Edge, which means there’s a lot more exploring we have to do, and honestly, I can’t see us living the rest of our lives on that outpost. Not to mention that my brother is still out there and very much a threat to everyone’s safety, which means we really don’t have time in the first place.”

With everything off my chest, I finally started to breathe normally again, looking at him with wide eyes as I waited for him to respond. He paused for a while, looking down at his knees, before _finally_ smiling and coming over to my side, hugging me close.

“You’re right,” he muttered against the side of my head. “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have even brought it up if my dad hadn’t started bugging me about it when we came back.” I moved my head away slightly, smiling at him.

“I figured. I’m sorry I freaked out on you. And I promise when the time is right, no matter how you say it, I’ll happily say yes to marrying you.”

“I hope this won’t take long, sorceress,” Thor groaned as Gothi mixed up a concoction with her bowl and pestle. I rested my free hand on my hip—the other one holding Hiccup’s—as we anticipated this nightmare to be over. “I like to nap after a feast of wild boar and mutton.”

“Thanks, Gothi,” Hiccup sighed, “we really need Fishlegs back.”

Gothi finally finished crushing and mixing the concoction, and swiftly, she yanked Thor’s mouth open and tossed the liquid into it, forcing him to swallow. Thor’s face contorted as he processed what he’d just swallowed, before rushing over to a barrel nearby and vomiting up the supposed cure.

“Ugh!” I stepped back, as though I was in some sort of splash zone. “What was in that potion?” Gothi began to furiously scribble into her sand patch with the stick she’d found and was using in place of her staff.

“It wasn’t a potion,” Gobber informed us. “Just spiced yak bladder. She says that’ll teach him to break her staff.” I shuddered a little as Gothi smirked devilishly.

“Not the most delicate delicacy,” Thor gasped, emerging from the barrel.

“What about getting Fishlegs back?” Although Thor’s attitude had certainly earned a little revenge, Gothi had tricked us into thinking she had a solution, when all this did was set us back.

“She can’t re-hypnotize him without her staff.” I threw my hand up, my frustration reaching its peak.

“Great. Now what?” Gothi’s scribbling caused silence to fall for a moment, before Gobber translated again.

“Fear. Only a true feeling of terror will shock Fishlegs back to normal.” On the surface, that seemed pretty simple, but Snotlout had thrown a small detail in that would make this a lot more difficult.

“But Mr. Thor Bonecrusher over here isn’t afraid of anything.” I suddenly felt an arm around my shoulders that wasn’t Hiccup’s, causing me to seize up, feeling uncomfortable.

“Truer words were never spoken, my fair Viking lady.” I watched Hiccup’s face changed, looking as though he was about to punch Thor, but I shuddered and pushed away from him before Hiccup got the chance. “Now, where is that snotty fellow? We have business to discuss.”

Nothing was going to work at this point. Not only was Thor completely fearless, but he also got distracted pretty easily.

“Hiccup, you may want to swing by the old homestead,” Gobber suggested. “Your father is in a bit of a… state.” I smiled and placed a hand on Hiccup’s arm, moving to face him.

“I’ll come with you,” I assured him. He nodded and took my hand again, leading us over to our dragons. We took off for his hut, the commotion audible even from outside with the door closed.

“Get this dragon off me!” I heard Stoick shout. Hiccup and I exchanged a wary glace before he opened the door, revealing Stoick struggling with Meatlug as she attempted to cuddle up to him, wagging her bludgeon of a tail enthusiastically. My heart broke yet again, watching the poor girl attempt to get some affection.

“Dad, she’s just lonely.” Hiccup reached over and tried to help him get Meatlug off.

“If she doesn’t get off me, we’ll be having Gronckle for breakfast.” I pinched the bridge of my nose as I watched this chaos unfold. 

“We need to get Fishlegs back before this gets any worse.”

“Hiccup! Reign!” I turned to see Astrid running in the door, panic written all over her face. That could only mean one thing…

“Let me guess. It’s Thor.” Hiccup leaned his head back, exasperated.

“Yeah, and Snotlout. And you’re not gonna believe where they’re headed.” Though it took us no more than a moment to put the pieces together, the Vikings shouting outside sealed the deal.

“Bonecrusher is going after the Scauldron,” one man cried.

We had to get out of here and go after the pair, in hopes we could maybe find a way to snap them out of it. Thinking fast, I grabbed onto Hiccup’s hand and dragged him out of the hut, leading him toward where our dragons had scampered off to.

“Oh, he’s going to tame the Scauldron,” another man said.

“He’s going to get killed by the Scauldron.” I shouted back at him. Somehow, Meatlug had managed to sneak away when we were distracted, but she didn’t have a saddle, meaning we couldn’t bring her with us. Besides, it was too dangerous to bring a dragon without a rider. I jumped up on Shriek and took off, following Hiccup in the direction we knew the Scauldron was currently residing. Astrid had gone to grab the twins, and not long after we left the grounds of the island, we all met up.

“They have to be down there somewhere.” Hiccup shook his head, looking as though he were trying to get something off of it. “What was Snotlout thinking?”

“He wasn’t. He’s in love,” Astrid mocked. “He’d do anything for his big hunk of bone-crushing love.” I blinked at her for a moment, unsure of what to say, before focusing on the task at hand.

“Well, we’d better find them before they find the Scauldron.”

The skies began to darken the further we went out to sea, almost like an omen of what we were heading into. I glanced around nervously as thunder and lightning crashed through the rain, remembering what happened last time everyone got caught in a lightning storm. The storm added an extra sense of urgency, putting more lives at risk than just Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the Scauldron. Thankfully, we broke through a low group of clouds and spotted a large figure balanced on the neck of a Scauldron, a Monstrous Nightmare without its rider hovering nearby.

“There they are!” Hiccup shouted over the lashing rain. “Come on!”

The Scauldron thrashed its head back and forth as Thor raised the axe in the air trying to bring it down on the dragon’s neck. Before he got the chance, the Scauldron threw its head back violently, causing the axe to slip from Thor’s grip and tumble into the water below. As my eyes averted down there, I saw a figure bobbing in and out of the waves, flailing their arms and fighting to stay above water. I had to squint, but I could just make out a distinct helmet.

“Snotlout’s in the water!” I shouted.

“You guys grab him,” Hiccup ordered. “I’ll go after Fishlegs.”

Hiccup leaned down a little, forcing Toothless to go faster, while I started to steer Shriek toward the water. Snotlout kept going under and emerging somewhere farther away. The waters had darkened with the sky, making it impossible to see him when he dipped beneath the waves again.

“Keep looking,” I called to Astrid and the twins, “he must be here somewhere.”

“So, how hard do you think we _really_ need to?” Ruff asked her twin, probably thinking I was out of earshot.

“I think some passing glances might do the trick,” Tuffnut responded.

“Well, the sooner we rescue Snotlout, the sooner we can watch Fishlegs get eaten by the Scauldron.” Tuffnut’s face immediately brightened.

“If you put it that way, let’s go!” I whipped my head around, ready to yell at the twins, when Astrid intervened.

“At least they’re looking for him!” she tried to reason. Realizing she had a point, I focused back on our rescue. Thankfully, not a few moments later, Hookfang dove down toward the water and snatched Snotlout out of the water, keeping him from harm.

My heart jumped in my chest as the Scauldron fired in Hiccup and Toothless’ direction, narrowly avoiding them. If we didn’t do something fast, we’d have to carry back dead bodies, and that was the _last_ thing we needed on top of this. Not to mention, by some miracle, Hiccup had survived this long—I wasn’t about to lose him over this.

Just as I was about to shout at him to get out of there, the clouds above my head broke, sending down a beam of heavenly light, and Meatlug flew through, heading straight for the Scauldron and slamming into its bulging mouth. Though the Scauldron roared and snapped at her, Meatlug still tried to distract him, leading him up into the air in an attempt to get him to drop her rider. Hiccup followed after them, making sure the Scauldron wouldn’t get too close as Thor began to climb the Scauldron’s back. It looked like all hope of getting Fishlegs back would be lost, as Thor was only a moment away from killing the dragon, when suddenly, he began to shake his head, watching the Scauldron nearly devour his dragon.

“No!” I heard Fishlegs shout, his voice back to normal and his posture slackening again. “Not my Meatlug!”

Astrid and the twins whipped out the net meant to catch the Scauldron as Fishlegs jumped onto Meatlug’s back. While they distracted the dragon, Astrid and the twins were able to get close to them, and caught the Scauldron in the net, tying it tight to assure the dragon wouldn’t be able to escape.

“That was a little too close,” Hiccup sighed, clearly relieved, as the rain started to clear up.

“Speak for yourself. That was freakin’ awesome!” Tuffnut cheered.

“All right, let’s get this dragon out of our fishing lanes.”

Hiccup and Fishlegs hung back for a moment, but eventually caught up, right as we dumped the Scauldron back into an area where it wouldn’t get in our way. With all of this wrapped up, we headed back toward Berk. The Vikings below cheered as we made our way back, clearly expecting Thor Bonecrusher to come back with the head of a dragon, instead of Fishlegs, back to his old self. Stoick approached as Hiccup and I landed, gravitating toward each other as we got off our dragons.

“So, what happened to the Scauldron?” he asked warily.

“He’s been relocated,” I informed him calmly, a warm smile spreading on my face as Hiccup cast an affectionate glance down at me.

“And my axe?” Our eyes widened, the joy of getting Fishlegs back quickly dissipating.

“Uh…” Hiccup stuttered, not meeting his dad’s eyes for a moment. “Also relocated.” We both backed up slightly, shrinking under Stoick’s steel gaze. Thankfully, the other Vikings cut in and saved us from having to say anything else.

“But what of Thor Bonecrusher?”

“Yeah, Bonecrusher!” A woman behind him clapped.

“I miss him!” Right at that moment, Fishlegs fell off his dragon, landing on the dirt. The Vikings crowded around him, expectantly waiting for the voice of Thor Bonecrusher, but instead, Fishlegs awkwardly waved.

“Hello…” he muttered sheepishly. People groaned in disappointment before walking away, likely preparing for dinner.

“You know, Fishlegs, you didn’t sneeze once the whole ride home,” Astrid observed as Meatlug snuggled up to her rider again.

“Yeah. And my legs don’t itch anymore,” he added as he managed to get on his feet again.

“And Meatlug isn’t wearing her saddle,” I pointed out, running my hand along Meatlug’s side for a moment. “Maybe you were never allergic to her, you were allergic to the saddle.”

“But why, all of a sudden, would I become allergic to her saddle?”

“Well, uh, I’ve been using a different kind of wax on the saddles.” I gagged slightly as Gobber fished a large ball of wax out of his ear. “Look at that.” Had we seriously been…? Ugh… “What? I never run out of the stuff. It’s coming out of my ears.”

“Well…” Gobber’s hook hovered a little too close to Fishlegs’ face, causing him to sneeze again. “I’m allergic to Gobber’s earwax? I am both relieved and disgusted.” Before we could say anything else on the manner, Snotout came up behind Fishlegs, directing his attention right to him. “What? What is it?”

“I’m just thinking of what might have been.” Suddenly, Snotlout lunged forward and grabbed Fishlegs’ face in his hands. “You broke my heart, Thor. You broke it right in two.” Snotlout dramatically kissed him on the cheek before rushing away, leaving Fishlegs stunned and confused.

“Okay, that was creepy, right?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” I sighed, shaking my head.

At least this whole issue was over now. As much as I loved Berk, there was part of me that couldn’t wait to head back to Dragon’s Edge… mainly because it meant we wouldn’t have to live in the same household as someone whose axe we lost. This was going to be a _long_ night…


	7. Gone, Gustav, Gone (Hiccup)

I removed the second lens from the Dragon Eye and cleaned it off, trying to figure out why we couldn’t get the different images it promised to show up, before sliding it back in until it clicked. I heard Reign making her way down the ladder from out loft, then smiled at her as she took a seat next to me and rested an arm around my waist.

“Okay, give me a slow burn, bud.” Toothless perked his head up from his head up from his nap and opened his mouth, shining out a low, purple light. Familiar images came up on the wall again. “Okay, we’ve seen this before, but what happens if I push…” I tilted the Dragon Eye down and pressed one of the strange buttons on the back. The glow turned red, and information on the Monstrous Nightmare came up. “Cool. Dragon classes. What do you say we check out the Night Fury, bud?” Toothless’ response consisted of yawning and laying back down for his nap, causing Reign to burst out laughing. “Try to contain your excitement, would you?”

Reign gently took the Dragon Eye from my hands and stood, moving closer to the wall.

“Now, Monstrous Nightmare gem plus Night Fury equals…” The light went out, completely crushing any hopes of gaining any more insight into the Night Furies. “…nothing. Okay.” She started to turn the base of the Dragon Eye, bringing the purple light back, when the door to our hut flew open and Astrid ran in, slightly panicked. “Oh! Astrid class,” she joked before moving the Dragon Eye down, so as to not blind her.

“Guys, we have a huge problem.” My eyes widened as I shot up, quickly moving to stand next to Reign.

“Dagur?” Reign spat, her eyes narrowing.

“Worse,” Astrid sighed.

“What could possibly be worse than Dagur?” Reign scoffed, shaking her head.

Not a moment later, her question was answered. A colorful Monstrous Nightmare came barreling toward us, crashing on top of Astrid and crushing her beneath its weight. Its small rider nearly fell off, but one he straightened, my jaw dropped slightly.

“Gustav!” he declared proudly.

“Gustav?” I shouted, completely confused. The last time we’d seen him, he was a little kid. How did he even know where we were?

“Gustav…” Astrid groaned. Gustav climbed off his dragon and stood in front of Reign and I, hands planted firmly on his hips.

“Gustav, what are you doing here?” I questioned as Reign and I backed up. “I-I mean, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?” Reign shot me a look, rolling her eyes, but a waved a hand, trying to get her to cut it out before Gustav saw. Sighing, she sat down next to me, and I gently pulled her into my lap.

“Hiccup, did you hear Gustav is…” The twins, Snotlout, and Fishlegs stopped dead in their tracks upon seeing Gustav had already arrived and was currently dancing on top of the trunk Reign and I used to store charts and maps. “…standing right beside you. Perfect.”

“You’re looking different there, Guster,” Tuffnut observed.

“Yeah, I’m growing a beard,” Gustav stated proudly as he jumped down and pointed to a single cluster of hairs on his chin.

“Really? Let me see.” Tuffnut had to get in _really_ close to see the hairs on Gustav’s chin, and even then, it could have been debatable. “Ha! Even Ruffnut has more hairs on her chinny-chin-chin than that.” Without hesitation, Tuff reached over and pulled it out. Gustav flinched and cried out in pain, crashing into the chest again and nearly knocking over the Dragon Eye. Curious, he picked it up and started to turn it in his hands.

“Hey, what’s this thing?” I reached out and tried to grab it from him, but I couldn’t reach him before he held it up and shone the light radiating from it right in his eyes. “Oh. Whoa. You see these spots? Some sort of sun sword?” As he stumbled and flailed his arms, the Dragon Eye flew out of his hands, threatening to crash onto the floor. Thankfully, Reign lunged out and grabbed it.

“No, Gustav, it’s not a sun sword.” Reign turned off the light and placed it in Fishlegs’ hand, waving for him to take it away. “It’s the Dragon Eye, and it’s very old and fragile,” I explained. As he started to mess with Toothless’ spare tail fins, Reign jumped up and grabbed onto Gustav’s shoulders, trying to steer him away.

“Whoa, these spots, they’re not going away.” Reign grunted as Gustav tried to back up, slamming his head right into her stomach and knocking the wind out of her for a moment. I stood and made my way over, taking her hand and making sure she didn’t collapse as she tried to catch her breath.

“It isn’t something to just be touched.” Fishlegs gently ran his hand over the base of the device.

“Relax, Fishlegs, I know what I’m doing.” Reign and I grimaced as Gustav slammed into the wall again, knocking all of the spare fins down.

“Gustav, Gustav, over here.” Gustav followed the sound of Snotlout’s voice, only stopped from crashing into him by Snotlout grabbing onto Gustav’s helmet. “Uh, when are you leaving?”

“That’s funny, Snotlout, but I’m not leaving.” My head jutted out involuntarily, hoping that Gustav was just messing around with us. “I’m moving here.” Everyone gasped, except for Tuffnut, who began to laugh wildly.

“Yeah, yeah you are,” he gasped out between laughs. “Imagine… he would never…” Slowly, the realization caught up to him. “Wait, he’s serious? I’ll get the stake and firewood.” Shockingly, a few of the others started to follow Tuffnut, as though this really was a viable option.

“Oh, hold on, hold on. No one is burning anyone at the stake,” I warned.

“Hiccup’s right.” For a moment, it almost seemed like Ruffnut was going to give it up. “Let’s just throw him off the cliff.”

“Guys, I’m sure there’s a simple explanation.” Reign rested her head in one of her hands. “Please tell me there’s a simple explanation, Gustav.” Thankfully, as Gustav rubbed his eyes, it looked like he could see normally again.

“Yeah, very simple. By the way, do _not_ look right into that sun sword thing.” Reign sighed deeply, rolling her shoulders back a bit—a clear sign she was extremely frustrated. “Anyway, you and Hiccup said when I was ready, I could join the Dragon Riders.”

I froze momentarily, slowly glancing at Reign, who shared my same wary expression. Technically, yes, we had done that… but I don’t think either of us actually believed Gustav would remember that and would track us down.

“Well, I’m ready and here to join. Where’s my hut?”

No one said anything for a while, unsure of how to deal with this situation, before Reign seemed to come to and ushered everyone out, slamming the door behind them and leaving the others to watch over Gustav for a while. She still remained quiet for a moment, pacing back and forth before she finally revealed what was on her mind.

“Gutav should stay with us until we can get rid of him.” Her voice was strangely calm, given the scenario. “It’s safer than sending him with anyone else. There’s got to be a way for us to get rid of him without hurting his feelings while making sure he doesn’t think we’re offering him an invitation to join us… again.” I shook my head, making my way over to her and grabbing her shoulders to get her to stop moving.

“Reign, we have to be blunt with him. There’s no way he’ll understand if we don’t just tell him straight that he can’t be a Dragon Rider.” She scoffed at me, rolling her eyes.

“Hiccup, he’s still young, and he’s naïve. He doesn’t understand how dangerous it is.”

“He’s a teenager, Reign, not a child.” I stuttered for a moment, my gaze drifting to the Dragon Eye. Gustav being here would throw a serious wrench in trying to figure this thing out. Unless… “He does need supervision, though.”

“I agree. He and Fanghook have a tendency to destroy things.” I smiled at her.

“Great! So you can look after him for a while?” Immediately, she reeled her head back and glared at me.

“Wait a minute, why do _I_ have to watch him?”

“I would do it, but I’m making some, just, major breakthroughs with the Dragon Eye.”

“Yeah, which I was helping you with,” she shot back, crossing her arms and jutting a hip out.

“Look, we _did_ promise him that when the time was right, we would train him to be a Dragon Rider. But I just didn’t think that said time would be today.”

“What am I supposed to do with him in the meantime? You’re the one that always does the bulk of the training.”

“I-I don’t know,” I stuttered, trying to back myself out of the corner. “Just keep him occupied.” Reign turned away from me, officially refusing to meet my eyes,

“Great, so I’m a babysitter.” Something about that caused me to laugh, but it really wasn’t the right time for that. Quickly, I straightened myself up and cleared my throat, trying to keep myself from upsetting her further.

“No, I mean, come on. He’s—He’s 16,” I insisted. “How much trouble could he possibly be?”

As though on cue there was a thud outside, drawing our attention to the source. Once we opened the door to our hut, we found Smidvarg on the ground and flailing on his back. He struggled and shrieked, as though trying to warn us of something.

“Smidvarg, what is happening?” We drifted our eyes up to see the other Night Terrors flying in circles, trying to form into the bigger version of themselves without their leader. Fanghook and Gustav shot right through them, furthering the disturbance in their efforts to keep the island safe.

“Hey, Hiccup, did you know they could do this?” he shouted down to us. “Awesome!” As the Night Terrors scattered again, I turned to Reign, my expression now much more desperate than it was just a moment ago.

“Please?” I pleaded. “I just need a little more time.” She glared at me for a moment, before letting her arms fall to her sides and summoning Shriek.

“Fine,” she grunted. “But you _seriously_ owe me.” I nodded, shrinking back a little.

“We’ll sort that out.” Reign climbed onto Shriek’s back and waved her arm in Gustav’s direction, attempting to get his attention.

“Gustav, arena, now!” She led the Night Terrors and Gustav away, leaving me with Smidvarg, who managed to get back on his feet and gently trotted toward me.

“Your timing, by the way… impeccable.” As expected, he responded by screeching in my ear before following the rest of his flock.

Once they’d completely disappeared, I turned and headed back into the hut, immediately waking Toothless up and getting to work on the Dragon Eye. Every time I tried what Reign had earlier—combining different dragon classes with the Night Fury—I kept coming up blank. It felt like I was hitting walls over and over again, either stuck with no answers at all, or just the same things we’d seen a million times before. I casually flipped past the map we’d seen a dozen times, supposedly leading to some sort of treasure. But, as expected, it pretty much led to nothing.

I wasn’t sure how long I had been taking notes before the door to the hut was thrown open, revealing Reign, holding her arm gingerly. Her mop of red curls was somehow messier than normal, and honestly, she looked as though she were about to kill me. Gently, I set down the Dragon Eye and made my way over to her, resting an arm on her shoulders and walking with her to the stools we’d set up, where she sat down with a huff.

“Let me guess: Gustav didn’t do so well with training.” She shook her head.

“It was going fine at first, until Gustav got lost in his own daydreams and nearly got killed by one of Stormfly’s spines.” She buried her face in her hands for a moment, before shooting up suddenly, causing me to jump back. “If he even wants to _consider_ being able to do what we do, he needs to get his head out of the clouds.”

Her frustration hit its peak, causing her to slam her fist down on the table. The only time she ever got this mad was when it came to her brother, but that was a different manner entirely. I knew she was frustrated because she didn’t want Gustav to get hurt, but on a surface level, it was honestly hard to differentiate the two. I honestly hated seeing her like this, and of course, the guilt of knowing I sent her into that situation bit at me.

Gently, I extended my hand out and took hers, squeezing it a little to get her attention. Slowly, she sighed out of her nostrils and made her way closer, before eventually resting her head on my shoulder. We waited in the silence for a while, then I pushed back from her a little and smiled.

“Come on, let’s go for a little flight.” She smirked, her eyes flickering back toward the chest.

“What about the Dragon Eye?” I shrugged, motioning for Toothless to come over to us and leading Reign out of our hut.

“I’ve made absolutely no progress since you left, so I definitely need to get out and clear my head.” I got up onto Toothless’ back and motioned for her to follow. Thankfully, she nodded, and wrapped her arms around my waist and she slung her legs over.

“You better not use this as an opportunity to do tricks.” I stuck my right hand in the air and looked her square in the eyes.

“I swear I won’t do tricks and make you fall off.”

The moment we returned to Dragon’s Edge, Astrid ran up to us, her expression a mix of anger and fear. She wasted no time, immediately rattling off the problem as soon as she was within earshot.

“Hiccup! Reign! Have you two seen Gustav?” Our eyes widened and we snapped our glances to each other, before focusing back on Astrid.

“We were out, Astrid. We just got back,” Reign explained. “Don’t tell me you lost him…”

“Snotlout was supposed to look after him! But I went back to check on them, and Gustav wasn’t with him. We started looking around, but there’s no sign of him _or_ Fanghook.” It didn’t take much to put the pieces together.

“That means he probably went off on some mission he orchestrated for himself.” Reign quickly jumped off and ran into our hut, likely to grab her shield. She eventually returned with it, but the color had pretty much completely drained from her face.

“The Dragon Eye is gone.” I thought back to the last thing I had left the Dragon Eye on, when my mind flashed to that supposed treasure map.

“The map that’s on there… that must be where he’s going.” I immediately turned Toothless around and prepared to take off. “I’ll try my best to get him back. Hopefully, he hasn’t been there for long, otherwise…” Reign waved her arms in the air, shaking her head.

“Don’t think about that. Just go out there and get him. Do you remember where the island is?” I nodded, hopefully reassuring her enough.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I took off immediately after she finished speaking, heading straight for the island I hoped Gustav had flown to. We’d only gone there once, but the memory of that dangerous island was enough to cement its location in my mind. Thankfully, there weren’t any storms or strong winds that would impede on Toothless’ and my progress, and I relaxed a little as the island came into view. I could see Fanghook pacing on the beach, meaning that Gustav had, in fact, fled here. Trouble was, he was nowhere to be seen, meaning he had already made his way into the catacombs… which could mean it was already too late.

Fanghook squawked in distress as we landed, quickly bounding over to Toothless and I before resuming pacing in circles. He couldn’t seem to get his head on straight, but I didn’t feel safe going in there and attempting to rescue Gustav if I didn’t know exactly where he was; Fanghook could most likely help us with that, but he needed to calm down first. Trailing the dragon closely, I extended a hand out and tried to at least catch him. Eventually, he stopped running in circles, and I pet his side a few times in order to calm him down.

“There you go, Fanghook,” I soothed, finally getting him to completely calm down. “Now, I need you to take us to Gustav.”

It took Fanghook a moment, but he eventually turned and bolted into the caves, forcing me to sprint in order to follow him. He hadn’t gone too deep into the caves before he stopped dead in his tracks, his head pointing right at a cliff that had been created through the cracks formed in the ground by the weight of footsteps. The caves around me shook, nearly throwing me off my feet for a moment. When the tremors settled, I knew I wouldn’t have much time until the next one, so I ran over to the edge Fanghook had been fixated on, just in time to catch Gustav as his fingers slipped. Though he appeared relieved just to be alive when I first pulled him up, the moment he looked up at me, that joyful expression fell.

“Hiccup!” My brow furrowed as he attempted to smile again. “I can explain.” I yanked him onto his feet and dragged him over to Fanghook.

“You’ll explain when we get back to the Edge,” I snapped.

“But, Hiccup, I—“

“I don’t want to hear it, Gustav.”

He fell silent and remained that way the entire ride back to Dragon’s Edge. I could tell he felt bad, but that didn’t excuse the fact he went in the first place, completely disregarding safety. Once we touched down by the dragon stables, I dragged Gustav to the clubhouse, where the others were already situated. Reign had been pacing the room again, and the moment she saw us, I watched her facial expression melt into relief. She backed up, however, once I set Gustav down on the circular table we all ate at. It took me a while to try and find the right words, but once I did, it all just came pouring out.

“Of all the irresponsible, insubordinate— “

“Don’t forget idiotic, imbecilic, inane.” I whipped my head around and glared at Tuffnut, trying to silence him. “What? I’ve heard a lot of words for ‘stupid’. I mean, come on, people use that more than my proper name.” He seemed finished, so I turned my attention back to Gustav.

“Of all those kinds of stunts you could have pulled, this was the worst. Do you know what Dagur would do to get his hands on the Dragon Eye?”

“I just thought if I came back here with the treasure, you guys would accept me,” Gustav tried to explain.

“First of all, there is no treasure,” I quickly shot back. “Second of all, we’ve already been there. And that entire island is honeycombed with the most unstable caverns we’ve ever encountered.”

“I’m sorry, I just—“ I’d had enough of his interruptions. He still didn’t seem to get the message of all this.

“You could have been killed, Gustav. Fanghook could have been killed.” For a moment, I caught Reign’s eyes, and she raised her eyebrows slightly, trying to get me to back off. “Look, this isn’t Berk, Gustav. The rules are different out here. You have to be smarter than this.”

“I just wanted to prove myself,” he insisted yet again. The anger I had pushed down just a moment ago came rising back up, like bile in the back of someone’s throat.

“Oh, you have. You have proven that you are not responsible enough, you’re not mature enough, and you’re not trustworthy enough to be one of us.” I paused for a moment, letting out a sigh before finally feeling the last, lingering bits of anger leaving me. “Now, it’s been a long day. We all need some rest. We’ll talk about this is the morning.”

As everyone turned to leave, I glanced back for a moment, catching Reign kneeling down in front of Gustav and speaking to him in a low whisper. His angry and hurt expression started to soften a little, though it hadn’t completely gone away by the time she stood and made her way over to me. She looped her arm through mine and smiled at me as we made our way back to our hut. I could tell something was on her mind, but it wasn’t until we’d blown out our lanterns and laid down that she finally let it out.

“I think you were a little harsh, Hiccup.” I shifted and looked down at her, confused.

“What? Reign, what he did was dangerous. I don’t understand how you could defend him after that.” She moved her eyes a bit, clearly trying to formulate her sentences correctly, before a sentimental smile crossed her face.

“I see a lot of you in him.” I quietly scoffed.

“Reign, that’s ridiculous. I’m nothing like he is right now.” My arms flew to my sides as she sat up, looking down on me.

“Oh, really?” That smirk on her face made my stomach churn slightly. “Need I remind you about how you wanted to catch a dragon so badly, you nearly got the two of us killed by a Monstrous Nightmare?”

“Come on, I was younger.” She shook her head, placing a hand firmly on my chest.

“You were almost the same age Gustav is now.” Unfortunately for me, she had a point. “Look, I want him to be safe, too, but you have to remember that he’s looked up to you for a long time. He wants to be what you are, and unfortunately, that means he’s pretty reckless at times. I’m sure when he gets to be our age, he’ll calm down.” She paused for a second. “I mean, you can still be stupid at times, but you’re at least a lot more responsible than you used to be.” With her lecture taken care of, she settled back down and draped her arm around my waist. “You _both_ owe each other an apology.”

Reign fell asleep relatively quickly, but her words left me awake a little while longer, mulling them over in my head before finally drifting off.

I woke up to the sound of someone rummaging around downstairs, throwing open the chest before scooting out chairs and moving them back in after a moment. Groggily, I sat up and got out of bed, managing to get down the ladder without falling off in the process—something that happened _far_ more than I was proud to admit. Once I got to the bottom, I found Reign practically turning the place upside down.

“Reign, hon? What’s going on?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes. She immediately turned to face me, her eyes frantic and maybe slightly crazed.

“Gustav didn’t come back here last night,” she panted, having worn herself out from searching. “I need to go check the stables and the clubhouse. That kid has to be around here somewhere.” A nervous expression quickly settled on her face as I approached. “I hope.”

“Okay, okay, I need you to take a deep breath first.” Initially, she shook her head, but I eventually got her to breathe, which began to calm her down. “Now, we’ve got five other people that live on this outpost, we can get them to help. Everyone can spread out, and we’ll look for him, okay?” Slowly, she nodded, before quickly turning on her heel and running out to hop up on her dragon.

With the way she was panicking over Gustav missing, you would think he was her child.

Everyone went out and searched well into the day, but when we all met back up at the training arena, no one had Gustav with them.

“Anything?” I asked warily, though I could guess the answer.

“I checked the clubhouse, our hut again, even the stables.” Reign sighed and slumped against Shriek. “He’s not there.”

“Nothing else is on fire around here, so he must be gone,” Fishlegs joked.

“Well, we have to find him,” I urged, my eyes flickering to Reign every now and then.

“Or… do we?” The smile on Tuffnut’s face made me nervous.

“Yeah, why are we worried? Shouldn’t we be celebrating the fact that he’s gone?”

“Not until we know he’s safe.” The way Reign was glaring at Snotlout honestly could have killed him.

“Well, we could ask Fanghook,” Ruffnut suggested.

“And, Ruffnut, how do you suppose we do that?” Snotlout asked, his tone condescending.

“Turn around.”

Sure enough, when we all looked in the direction of Snotlout, Fanghook landed, immediately beginning to squawk in the same panicked way he had when I found him on the island the Dragon Eye led us to. Toothless rushed up to him and sniffed the air before starting to growl, as though there was some sort of danger present.

“Fanghook, where’s Gustav, boy?” Tuffnut asked the Monstrous Nightmare, as though he could answer. “Where’s Gustav?” He waited another moment, and after Fanghook just stared at him blankly, Tuff cried out in frustration. “He’s not talking, you guys. He’s completely shut down. Typical.”

When Tuffnut moved aside, I could see some sort of scroll tied onto Fanghook’s horn. Hopefully, that was written by Gustav, and not someone who had captured him and was holding him hostage. I stuck my arms out in front of me and slowly approached Fanghook, trying to keep him calm so I could grab the note.

“Hey, hey, Fanghook. Hey, it’s okay,” I assured him. “Easy, boy, easy.” When I got close enough, Fanghook lowered his head, allowing me to reach out and grab the rolled up piece of parchment. “Well, doesn’t look like he’s injured.”

“But he’s definitely upset,” Fishlegs pointed out as he approached. “Guys, look.”

I unrolled the paper and read it over carefully, trying to comprehend exactly what I was reading. It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting to be delivered by a rider-less dragon, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. It was dangerous, sure, but I could get Gustav to come back.

“Dagur,” I muttered, causing Reign to clench her fists and grunt in disapproval. “He wants to make a trade. The Dragon Eye for Gustav.”

“Of course it was my brother.” I watched as Reign kicked some of the stone beneath her.

“Reign, I can get him back. I’m formulating a plan, I _promise_. But I need to go now.” I didn’t wait for her response, and instead headed back to the hut and gathered up the Dragon Eye and Toothless’ saddle. I made my way to everyone as I started to pack things up, and in an instant, they came back over to me.

“I don’t like this, Hiccup.” Reign’s tone was stern, clearly warning me not to go. I knew she wanted to come with and take down her brother, but that couldn’t work.

“Well, we have no choice.”

“You sure we have _no_ choice?” Tuffnut asked. Of course, I knew he was more worried about never having to deal with Gustav again than something going wrong. “Like, none? Zip? Zilch?”

“This is my fault, anyway,” I groaned, trying my best to ignore Tuffnut.

“ _Ninguino_?”

“I never even gave the kid a chance.” I gently ran my hand over the Dragon Eye, thinking back on all the issues this little device had caused.

“ _Ni Portugal_?”

“Tuffnut, that’s really not helping at all,” I interjected, finally getting him to stop. “If I wasn’t so busy tinkering with this thing, I don’t know, maybe I could have kept him busy.” Strangely, no one really seemed to mind that I was just thinking out loud.

“Uh, yeah, nobody can keep Gustav busy.” I could tell that, as much as Fishlegs joked about Gustav, he was completely serious this time.

“At least let us back you up out there,” Reign insisted as I climbed up onto Toothless’ back.

“Your brother was very clear. I have to come alone. We don’t know what he’ll do to Gustav if I don’t follow his demands to the letter.”

“No, we can’t risk it.” Looking at the worry on her face, part of me wanted to let her come with me, but I knew I couldn’t ruin this.

“I’ll be careful, I promise.” Her worries seemed no more assuaged than they were a moment ago, but at this rate, it was all I could do. Before I left, I leaned down and grabbed Reign’s hand, then kissed it.

With Fanghook trailing me, I followed the coordinates that had been sent to me, making my way to the old ship graveyard we had first found Dagur in, back when he had just escaped. Just as promised, a small ship floated among the destroyed bits of ones previously used by other Vikings, and three figured waited up on the deck. Grey clouds rolled in as Toothless landed on the deck of Dagur’s ship, further decreasing my visibility among the fog.

As soon as Fanghook and Toothless touched down, a broad smile spread onto Gustav’s face, and he sprinted to his dragon, wrapping his arms tightly around the Monstrous Nightmare’s neck.

“Fanghook!” he cried. “Oh. I was worried about you, boy.”

“Aww, dragon and Dragon Rider love. Makes me want to hurl,” Dagur mocked. “Blech!”

Toothless’ snarling drew my attention to the other Vikings on the ship, all pointing crossbows in our direction, poised to strike if we stepped out of line.

“Yeah, I see ‘em, bud,” I whispered as Toothless crouched down lower. “Gustav, are you okay?” He nodded just before Dagur shoved him slightly as he stormed over to Toothless and I. Once he was within range, I stuck my hand out. “That’s close enough, Dagur.”

“Oh, wow, where’s the trust?” He set his hands on his hips. “After all we’ve been through together? No? Nothing? No Hiccupy barbs, quips, snappy comebacks?” I refused to give into his taunting and prodding. “But I really love those. We’ve developed such a nice shorthand, you and I.”

“Dagur, let’s just get on with this. Send them over.”

“You first. You have no choice. One false move, and my men will take out you, the Night Fury, and the kid! So roll it over and I’ll let him go.”

Though I still didn’t trust it, he had a point; in order for all of this to go smoothly, I needed to just comply and go along with it. So, reluctantly, I got off Toothless’ back and rolled the Dragon Eye in Dagur’s direction, its momentum only stopped by his foot. The giddy grin that crossed his face as he picked the Dragon Eye was sickening.

“Oh, it-it really is one beautiful artifact,” he marveled as he ran his hands over the gold markings. “And I hear it can be very useful to those who possess it? Hmm, is that true?” I refused to answer Dagur’s questions, unwilling to help him in figuring that device out.

“Gustav, let’s go,” I barked. “It’s okay.” Very subtly, I nodded at him, trying to assure him this was fine.

“Yeah, about that, Hiccup…” Gustav trailed off, his eyes falling downward. “I’ve been treated much better by these guys than I ever was treated by you and the Dragon Riders.”

“Ooh,” Dagur cackled, clearly getting some sort of sick enjoyment out of this. “And the plot thickens.” I blinked at him for a moment before shaking my head and focusing back on the young rider.

“Gustav.” I couldn’t get anything else out before he cut me off.

“You could’ve given me a chance, you know? All you guys ever did was tell me I wasn’t good enough, tell me I didn’t belong. Well, I belong here.”

“Gustav, you have no idea what you’re getting into,” I warned. 

“Oh, yes, I do, Hiccup. I know exactly what I’m doing.” His tone made things a little too obvious, but luckily, Dagur was pretty dense.

“Awkward,” Dagur sang. “Well, I’d say your work is finished here, brother. Ordinarily, this is where I would double-cross you and fill you full of arrows. But the kid is squeamish. He made me promise to let you go, and in return, he’s gonna take me to a treasure.”

_And that would be your first mistake, Dagur._

“That’s right, Hiccup. We have the Dragon Eye and Fanghook’s fire. And you know what that means. Untold treasure awaits.”

I pretended to scoff angrily and stormed over to Toothless, shooting the three men in front of me a glare as we prepared to take off and head to the next place we needed to be.

“You are going to regret this,” I threatened.

“I don’t think so, Hiccup.” 

Before anyone else could say anything more, Toothless and I took off, heading for the familiar island. We had to beat that crew there, otherwise this would all have been for nothing, and I’d be putting Gustav at even more of a risk than I already had by going along with all of this.

Thankfully, when we reached the sandy shores, Dagur’s ship wasn’t anywhere in sight, likely meaning they hadn’t arrived yet. Careful not to set anything off, Toothless and I slunk into the caves and ducked into the shadows, waiting with baited breath for our opportunity to arrive. It wasn’t much longer after we hid that two voices bounced off the walls, though their words were so echoed, I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. Regardless, the flash of orange light from the Dragon Eye was our signal, and as carefully as we could, Toothless and I crept out and moved to stand right behind Dagur, just as he jumped out in front of Gustav.

“Gotcha!”

“No…” Dagur jumped and whipped around, gawking up at Toothless and I. “… _we’ve_ got _you_. Good work, Gustav.” Dagur still remained silent, at a loss for words

. “Oh, what’s the matter, Dagur? No barbs, no comebacks?” I taunted, throwing his words back in his face. “I thought we had a shorthand, I thought you loved that stuff.”

Thinking fast, Dagur yanked Gustav off the ground and threw him over toward us and his dragon, taking the Dragon Eye for himself.

“Dagur, you hand over the Dragon Eye,” I demanded.

“I don’t think so.”

“I’m not asking.” Toothless opened his mouth and fired a warning shot at the ground, causing the ground to crack between us. A large cavern had been created, threatening to force anyone down it if they dared to step too close.

“Oh. It’s a long way down, isn’t it?” Dagur took a step, causing Toothless to fire another plasma blast at his feet.

“Dagur, you’ve got nowhere to go. It’s over.” Another blast to his feet drew Dagur’s attention downward, and that stupid smirk he always wore came back.

“It’s over? Really?” He held the Dragon Eye up, almost as though he was going to give in and hand it over, when suddenly, he let it slip from his fingers, causing it to tumble into the chasm below. “Whoops.”

“Oh, no!” I watched in horror as Gustav jumped down after the Dragon Eye, plummeting closer and closer to a painful death. The Dragon Eye wasn’t worth his life.

“Gustav!” Even though it meant Dagur would get away, I had to go after him. Besides, I’m sure Reign would get a lot more satisfaction taking her brother down herself.

The darkness and falling rocks made it difficult to see, but just barely, I thought I could make out Gustav pushing himself forward and grabbing onto the Dragon Eye. Sure enough, just a moment later, his voice called out to us.

“Hiccup!” His voice cracked slightly from the distress.

“There, Toothless!” Toothless completely spread his wingspan, allowing us to float slightly and catch up to Gustav. I breathed a sigh of relief as I grabbed onto his hand, pulled him up toward us, and set him on Toothless’ back. “We’ve got you, Gustav. Let’s get out of here.”

We were just about to break through the opening, when a large boulder broke loose from the rest of the wall, falling onto Toothless and knocking us right back off of him. I had to take a moment to get my bearings, but the moment I did, I pushed toward Toothless.

“Toothless! Don’t worry, bud.” I reached my hand out and tried to grab onto his saddle, barely making it onto his back and clicking my peg leg forward to open the tail fin. “I’m gonna have to come up with something in case that happens to us again.”

Fanghook swooped in and scooped Gustav up, which meant everyone was accounted for, and we could finally get out of here. Rather than risking heading upwards again, Gustav and I dove down, flying until we could no longer feel the rumbling.

“You okay?” I asked, turning to look back at Gustav.

“Yeah.” His happy expression fell quickly. “Hiccup, I’m really sorry.” The rumbling caught up to us, causing a few rocks to fall down. We’d need to leave soon…

“I’m sorry, too, Gustav. You’re still irresponsible, immature and reckless, but the way you handled yourself with Dagur, maybe you do have what it takes to be a Dragon Rider… someday.” I felt a warmth in my chest as the smile returned to his face.

“Someday? I will take someday!” Another rumble shook the cave around us, this one stronger than the last.

“What do you say you and me find a way out of here?”

When Gustav and Fanghook moved, my eyes caught a glint wedged between a set of stalagmites. Nestled comfortably underneath a beam of light was a small, wooden chest. Curious, I got off Toothless and made my way over to it, removing it from its place and opening the lid. I gasped as I looked over the contents; this was _far_ more valuable than any traditional sort of treasure.

“What the Thor is this?” Before I could ponder this any further, the caverns violently shook, urging Toothless and I out. “Let’s get out of here, bud.”

When we arrived back on Berk, Reign immediately rushed over and wrapped her arms around me. I sighed happily and returned the gesture, still keeping one arm around her when she pulled away. Astrid was the first to approach Gustav with an apology.

“Gustav, I—“ Before she could finish, Gustav reached up and placed a finger on her lips.

“Uh, uh, stop right there, sweets.” I heard Reign snicker as we watched the scene unfold. “I can’t stay. My mom would kill me. She usually notices I’ve been gone after about three days.” He turned on his heel, leaving Astrid disturbed and dumbfounded as he climbed up onto his Monstrous Nightmare. “All right, Fanghook, let’s go. You take care, babe. Don’t worry! Gustav will be back soon.” Despite her earlier concern, I felt Reign sigh once Gustav was out of earshot. Gently, I removed my arm from her waist and opened the chest we’d found in the caverns.

“What’s that?” Reign asked, getting up on her toes and leaning over to peer in.

“Oh, just something I found at the bottom of that cave.” I removed the treasure from inside, which promptly caused Fishlegs to freak out.

“Oh, a new lens!”

“Yeah, there was treasure in those caves after all. The Dragon Eye was giving us clues on how to find it all along. We just weren’t looking in the right place.”

“And if there’s one of those out there, that means there has to be more.” Reign’s giddiness caused me to chuckle.

“Huh. And to think, we never would’ve found that without Gustav,” Astrid shrugged.

“Awesome, so let’s tell Gustav.”

Everyone’s protests immediately deterred that idea, but we all made sure to turn and wave Gustav away. Once he had completely faded from our view, Reign snatched the lens out of my hand and started to drag me away from everyone. She momentarily glanced back at me, and slowed her pace slightly as she took in the quizzical look on my face.

“What? We’ve got research to do.”


	8. Reign of Fireworms (Reign)

**_Wow, in writing this, I’m realizing with the exception of “Have Dragon Will Travel”, Season 1 is really… uninteresting. Like I get having to establish the world but… jeez._ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - -_ **

I smiled as I closed my eyes and sighed, allowing a gentle, warm breeze to brush some of my red curls off my shoulders. Dragon’s Edge had fallen completely silent, a rare moment around here. My feet dangled over the edge of the wooden platform where Hiccup and I had built our hut, swinging loosely beneath me. I hadn’t felt this calm in a long while, so this moment was appreciated.

“’Morning.” I turned my head just has Hiccup sat down beside me, wrapping an around my waist. 

“Good morning,” I muttered, scooting closer to him. “It’s so quiet. I’m really enjoying this down time.” A warmth buzzed in my chest as he buried his face in the crook of my neck.

“I have to admit, this is pretty nice. Sometimes, it’s good to just have a moment where nothing is going wrong.”

“ _Reign! Hiccup! We have an emergency!”_ I couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony of the moment. Hiccup groaned and rolled his eyes, lifting his head. I turned and leaned on one of my arms as Fishlegs landed on the platform in front of us.

“What’s up, Fishlegs?” I asked. He didn’t even bother to get off of Meatlug before he spoke.

“We may have a Fireworm problem…” he trailed off.

My eyes widened, and Hiccup and I shot up, whistling for our dragons and summoning the other riders to come with us. We followed closely behind him, letting him lead the way into the deep forests on the other side of the island. At first, I thought maybe Fishlegs just hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night and was seeing things, until I noticed little flickers of fires in the trees.

“It began with one Fireworm, and as we were flying back, we kept seeing more and more,” Fishlegs explained.

“Do you think they’re migrating?” Once I offered that, I tried to think of more explanations as to what could be going on here.

“If they were migrating, the whole island would be on fire,” Hiccup reminded us.

“Not necessarily.” Fishlegs’ slightly frantic expression relaxed ever-so-slightly.

“Here we go!” Snotlout groaned, rolling his eyes.

“When Fireworms migrate, they send out scouts to see if their migration route is safe. If this is a stop along that route—“

“An entire flock of Fireworms could be coming through here,” I finished, dread settling like a rock in my stomach.

“Well, I say bring ‘em on!” Tuffnut cheered, pumping his fist in the air. “I love those little scorchers.” I shook my head, leaning down on Shriek slightly. The twins proved, more often than not, that they truly _lived_ for chaos.

“Are you still gonna love them when they all land here and burn our entire island to the ground?” Hiccup shouted to the pair on the Zippleback.

“Yes!” Tuffnut hesitated for a moment, despite technically giving us his answer. “Wait, no. Wait, is that a trick question? Because it’s pretty tricky.”

“Fishlegs, how much time to do we have?” Astrid asked, trying to steer us back on track.

“Uh, it’s hard to say,” he shrugged. “If it’s a full migration, the rest of them could be here as soon as next week.” My jaw hung slightly open for a moment, shocked by the tight constraints of a short timeline.

“Oh,” I squeaked, trying to get my brain to function again. “That’s soon.”

“Ha! Good to know.” Snotlout pulled back on Hookfang’s reigns, causing him to spread his wings out and float backwards a bit. “It’s been nice knowing you, island. Snotlout is outlout!”

“We’re not abandoning the island, Snotlout,” Hiccup scolded as he pulled on Toothless, turning him around and circling around the attempted escapees.

“Uh, yeah, we are. Watch.” Snotlout tried to turn Hookfang and flee, but I shot up toward them and blocked their path, staring him down.

“Guys, we put too much hard work into this place to just leave. Snotlout is not ‘outlout’,” I snapped. “We’re staying. Now, let’s get to work.”

“Fine!” Snotlout finally caved. “But I still like my plan better.”

The others turned around and headed back toward Dragon’s Edge, but before we took off and joined them, Hiccup turned to me, slightly awed.

“That was impressive.” I bowed as much as I could, perched atop Shriek, causing him to chuckle. “Come on, let’s head back. Can you help me build a fire break on the west side of the island?” I flew close by his side as we made our way back to our outpost.

“Yeah, of course.”

Once we all met back up, Hiccup distributed tasks, and the two of us flew over to the west side of the island. Since Shriek couldn’t blow fire, Hiccup and Toothless took care of clearing the brush, while Shriek and I dug into the ground, creating a line that would hopefully stop the fire. Once we’d finished, we landed and stepped back to admire our work… not that it was really anything that impressive. I relaxed and leaned my head back slightly as Hiccup came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“We got attached to this place really quickly, I’m sort of impressed.” I let out an involuntary sigh as he began to place kisses along my neck and shoulder.

“Well, it’s nice to have our own places,” he muttered in between kisses. “More privacy, more free reign to do what we want… plus, it’s better that we have lots of vacant space for the twins to blow something up in, rather than on Berk.”

“Very fair.” My mind wandered for a moment, bringing me to a place unfortunately much darker than all of Hiccup’s suggestions. “Plus, if my brother is just looking for us, it’s better that he comes here. We can deal with him, but if he attacks Berk, we might not be able to get there in time.” I pushed away from Hiccup, and when I turned to face him, he wore a sympathetic look.

“You’ve been thinking about that a lot, haven’t you?” I couldn’t lie to him. If I tried to deny it, he knew me well enough to understand I wasn’t telling the truth. But I also knew he’d worry if I told the truth. It was more a matter of the lesser of two evils.

“He’s going to do something soon. I can feel it.” Slowly, Hiccup approached me again, resting his hands on my arms. “I know you saw him recently, but he hasn’t launched some sort of attack in a while. It just makes me think something big is coming.” Hiccup didn’t say anything for a while, causing my panic to rise slightly. “Don’t tell me that isn’t at least in the back of your mind.”

“No, no, it definitely is. Look, there’s no way to completely prepare for Dagur, but we’re about as ready as we can be at this point, right?” I nodded just a little. “Besides, you know he’s not exactly the brightest man. We’ll probably be able to catch him no problem and get him locked right back up again.”

Though I knew Hiccup couldn’t promise any of what he just said, the reassurance that something would at least be done was enough to calm me down a little. Close enough to satisfied, I reached up and kissed him, bringing myself as close to him as possible as he shifted his hands to my waist. It was nice to have a moment like this, given the chaos that had unfolded since we started journeying again. Part of me wished we could just stay like this for a while, but we needed to get back to the others and make sure they’d all finished their tasks. Reluctantly, I pulled away and made my way toward Shriek. Hiccup wasn’t willing to give up that easily, however, and once we got back to the clubhouse, he sat on the table adjacent to the furnace and pulled me to sit between his legs. The others came back not long after us.

“Okay, Astrid, you and Fishlegs filled the watering troughs, right?” Toothless bounded in circles around us, happily chasing nothing.

“Yep!” Astrid smiled. “Topped off all the barrels too.”

“Ooh,” Fishlegs stuck a finger in the air, fully drawing our attentions to him, “I found a perfect cave for the Night Terrors. High enough and desolate enough so the flames won’t get near them.”

“Perfect,” Hiccup complimented. “Now if the twins would finally get back, we could find out what they’ve done.”

“Oh, I can tell you what they’ve done,” Snotlout piped up confidently. “Zero, zip, zilch. I’m forgetting something. Oh, yeah, goose egg!”

“Oh, contrary, my fine fellow.” Snotlout jumped and quickly turned around, staring at the twins who had just appeared in the doorway. “We have done quite a lot, actually.”

“Did you clear the brush?” Tuff flickered his eyes away.

“Uh, no.” I shook my head as it dropped down slightly.

“Build a fire break.”

“Nope, not that,” Ruffnut answered with gusto.

“How about water?” Astrid asked, clearly reaching for anything at this point. “Did you bring any back?”

“Couldn’t. Too busy.”

“Busy with what?” Hiccup demanded, clearly slightly dumbfounded.

“Finding something awesome.” Knowing the twins, ‘awesome’ likely meant ‘dangerous, destructive, and possibly fatal’. Still, if going to look at it with them meant they would actually get their work done, it was at least worth a try. Sighing, I moved Hiccup’s arms and stood up.

“Just show us whatever it is you found so we can either incapacitate it or just move on.” The others looked at me like I was insane, but still followed the twins to the peak of one of the cliffs, where a stone stood firm against the horizon.

“Behold!” Ruffnut gestured her arms to it, giving the rock a large amount of pomp and circumstance. “We call it the Namey Rock.”

“And why is that?” I asked, humoring them slightly.

“Duh, ‘cause it has our name all over it. Cool, huh?”

“Oh, yeah,” Snotlout deadpanned. “I mean, no. Man, you two are completely ridiculous.” He slapped his forehead against the palm of his hand, reaching the edge of his patience.

“Ridiculous, perhaps,” Ruff agreed. “But answer me this—where’s _your_ namey rock?” She made a big show of cupping her hand against her ear and waiting for an answer she knew would never come. After a victorious cackle, the twins butted their heads together.

“Uh, Hiccup, Reign, you might want to come take a closer look at this. I think it’s a claim stone.” I crossed my arms as Hiccup and I approached the stone and leaned down, carefully reading over the slightly messy carvings in it.

“’I, Magmar Thorston, hereby claim this island in my name and the name of all my family present and future, forever and ever.’” I shrunk back a bit as Tuffnut sidled up to me.

“And what else?” he prompted, forcing me to look back at the writing on the stone again.

“’And ever,’ apparently.” With my reading finished, Tuffnut jumped back up and stood beside his sister.

“Ha! Long-lost Great Uncle Magmar!” he cheered. “Oh, my Thor! Wasn’t he the one who could pass an entire cod through one nostril?”

“And debone it at the same time? It’s a lost art.”

Thor, their family was so strange. Then again, who was I to judge?

“People just don’t appreciate the craftsmanship,” Tuffnut lamented.

“Oh, come on!” Snotlout shouted, exasperated. “That stone is a fake. It’s so obvious that these two made it up.”

“I don’t think so,” Fishlegs protested. “For one thing, everything is spelled correctly.” That gave Snotlout pause for a moment, before his shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Okay, you may have a point.” Astrid stepped up in front of everyone, her facial expression changing a few times as she attempted to process everything.

“Let me get this straight: these two own this island?”

“It would appear that way,” Fishlegs sighed.

“Yeah!”

“In your face!”

“We are so in charge of this place!” The twins’ intense enthusiasm didn’t exactly ease the churning sensation in my stomach.

“Preach, sister!” Ruffnut took on a haughty voice as she took her brother’s request.

“Well, according to this stone—“ Tuff slapped a hand over his twin’s mouth.

“That was a rhetorical preach,” he corrected quickly. With a huff, Snotlout got up onto Hookfang and pat him to take off. Unfortunately for him, his dragon couldn’t even leave the ground before the twins caught him. “Hey, where are you going, subject?”

“Ha! You may be in charge of this island, but you’re not in charge of me,” Snotlout taunted as Hookfang raised his head.

“Ah, ah! Respect the crown.” Tuff tapped his dented, scuffed helmet. “Don’t make us get ugly.”

“That ship sailed a long time ago.” Ruffnut laughed as she punched her brother’s arm.

“Ugly!”

“Clearly, we’ll need a dungeon,” Tuff grumbled as he rubbed the spot on his arm that had just been struck. Thankfully, Hiccup rushed in and pushed Tuffnut back a bit, trying to diffuse whatever was starting to burn.

“Okay, let’s all just take a breath and calm down. The first thing we need to do is get this claim stone authenticated. Then we can discuss potential leadership and… dungeons, or whatever.” Hiccup turned to me, quickly getting out of range of the twins. “We should head to Berk and get Gobber and my dad. They’ll be able to settle this.”

“We should just go right now, then,” I suggested. “It’s going to take a while to get to Berk, and we have Fireworms to worry about; we really don’t have any time to waste.” Hiccup walked over to our dragons and made sure to secure their saddles, while I addressed the rest of the group. “All right, Hiccup and I are heading to Berk, so we’re going to be gone for a few hours. In the meantime, we want all of you to keep preparing for the worst-case Fireworm scenario. That means clearing as much of the brush around Dragon’s Edge as possible and creating a fire break around the entire thing. Two of you need to herd the Night Terrors into the cave Fishlegs found earlier. I expect at least a little bit of progress by the time we come back. Got it?” Tuffnut raised a finger, opening his mouth to object, but I turned and glared at him before we got the chance. “Until this claim stone is authenticated, you and your sister aren’t in charge, so please, just do _something_.”

With no complaints or questions to be heard, I got onto Shriek, and Hiccup and I took off in the direction of Berk. Once our outpost island had completely disappeared behind us, Hiccup turned to me with a smirk on his face.

“What?” I laughed, trying to hide the fact I felt slightly awkward under his gaze.

“That display back there was impressive,” he marveled. “You acted like a chief for a moment.” I shook my head vigorously.

“Oh, please. Just because I’m the daughter of a chief doesn’t mean I have the makings for it. My brother was always next of kin growing up, so he probably got all the training.”

“Still, leadership seems to be a natural thing with you.” I shrugged, still trying to pass off the compliment.

“Not a clue why.”

Since we hadn’t sent word ahead to Berk that we were coming, it was somewhat of a miracle Stoick was unoccupied at the moment, and an added bonus that he wasn’t in a bad mood. In fact, he seemed _far_ too excited by the arrival of his son and his son’s girlfriend. The moment he realized we were the ones walking in the door, he jumped up from his seat.

“Hiccup! Reign! To what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise visit?” I glanced at Hiccup nervously, unsure of what to do from here. “Is there some sort of announcement you have to make?”

…and, there it was.

“What? No, Dad!” Hiccup shouted, maybe a little too loudly. “We’ve talked about this.”

“We need you and Gobber to help us out with something back on Dragon’s Edge.” I cut in. “There’s this claim stone that supposedly means the island belongs to Ruffnut and Tuffnut, which in and of itself is enough to want to debate this thing. We need you and Gobber to come and make sure it’s real, and not something the twins did in the time they were _supposed_ to be doing work.”

Luckily for us, Stoick agreed without hesitation, and after finding Gobber and explaining the situation, they followed us back to Dragon’s Edge. We brought them right to the spot where the stone was-- and the others left their posts to come and bear witness-- and Gobber immediately knelt down and started to inspect it. He leaned in close to his magnifying glass, running his eyes over every inch of the carvings.

“Mm-hmm. I see,” he murmured before stepping back a bit.

“Well, Gobber?” Stoick more seemed to be pushing him to finish than asking for an actual answer.

“Give me a minute.” He used the hammer attachment for his hook hand to pound away a tiny piece of the stone, sniffing it before popping it into his mouth and chewing without a second thought. “Mm-hmm. Very interesting. Tastes right to me, Stoick. This claim stone is 100% authentic.”

“Aw, yeah!” Ruffnut cheered, throwing her arms into the air. Hiccup and I met eyes, and immediately, we both grimaced.

“Authentic!” The twins dropped to their knees in victory.

“100%! No more percents to be had, folks.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Uh-uh, no!” Astrid protested, violently throwing her hand against her waist.

“No!” Snotlout’s protest was short, right to the point.

“What? No! No way!” Even Fishlegs was getting worked up about this. Not that I could blame him. The twins being in charge really sounded like a Ragnarok-esque scenario.

“All right, that’s enough,” Stoick interjected, silencing everyone’s cries. “It looks like this island officially belongs… to the twins.” It sounded as though it pained him to say that. Immediately, the blond pair got up off the ground, linked arms, and began to dance in circles.

“It’s our island now!”

“We got the island, and you can’t have it,” they taunted, pointing at us and laughing. “This island is ours! We don’t have to do anything, or take any showers!”

Not that they did that before finding out they owned this island.

“Well, I suppose I have to make this official, then.” Stoick removed his sword from his sheath and gestured to the twins. “Ruffnut, Tuffnut, get down on one knee and remove your helmets.” As they followed his instructions, I leaned over to Hiccup.

“He can’t be serious,” I hissed, my brain running through the various disaster scenarios.

“We’ll figure this out,” he assured me.

“Ahem!” I moved my attention from Hiccup to his father, still in slightly disbelief he was actually going through with this. “As chief of Berk, I hereby declare under Vikings law, the living heirs to Magmar Thorston are indeed entitled to full ownership of this island with all the benefits that comes with it.” He touched his sword lightly to their shoulders, firmly sealing all of our fates.

“Now what?” Tuffnut asked, looking up at Stoick for help.

“Don’t ask me,” he shrugged. “It’s your island.” Elated, the twins jumped up and began to dance and chant again. Meanwhile, Hiccup broke away from the rest of us and quickly rushed after his father. They only spoke for a moment before he and Gobber walked away. I wasn’t quite sure how they’d get back to Berk without us, but I guess they’d figure it out.

“Great, what do we do now?” Fishlegs demanded as we all circled around Hiccup. “Any ideas?”

“Oh, we could always…” Snotlout dragged his finger over this throat and made a hissing noise. “You know.”

“We’re not killing the twins, Snotlout,” I scoffed.

“Please tell me we’re not giving them the island.” The fact Hiccup genuinely paused to think about that didn’t make me feel good about whatever was going to happen here.

“Actually, we are.” I blinked rapidly at him, stunned and in disbelief. “We are giving them the island?” Snotlout laughed bitterly, trying to shake off the initial shock.

“What?”

“First of all, we don’t really have a choice. And second, once they find out being in charge isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be, and they have to deal with the Fireworm problem on their own, they will beg us to take the island back.”

“And if they don’t?” The thought of that possibility didn’t make me feel any more content with this plan.

In lieu of an answer, we all turned our attention to the twins, who offered the ever-comforting gesture of banging their heads together so violently, they collapsed to the ground. Without a word, everyone broke away and got onto their dragons, scattering to some form of leisure activities. Truthfully, I would have liked to work more on the Fireworm preparations, but the moment Hiccup and I arrived back at our hut, he snatched up one of the books filled with charts and used his free arm to grab onto my waist, pulling me toward Toothless and helping me up onto his back.

“Hiccup, we really should—“ Toothless flew over to the clubhouse and settled down, allowing Hiccup to lay down.

“Reign, everything’s going to work itself out, and the island isn’t going to burn down.” I rolled my eyes, remaining sitting as he laid down and held the book over his head so he could read it.

“You say that a little too confidently for me to be comfortable.” Still, Hiccup refused to budge on his idea.

“I give them a day at most. That still gives us more than enough time to prepare for all the Fireworms.”

I sighed, realizing Hiccup wasn’t going to give up on his position, and decided to relent… for now. Though part of me still screamed to get up and do something about this situation, I chose to lay down and drape an arm across Hiccup’s waist as I closed my eyes. We _had_ talked about enjoying moments like this earlier, so maybe taking advantage of this for a day wouldn’t be so bad.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t had my eyes closed for more than two minutes, when the twins shouting and the sound of something slamming against something else demanded our attention.

“Okay, a little higher,” I heard Tuffnut order. Hiccup lowered the book from his face and glanced at me. “No, no, no, to the left. Yes! No.” Carefully, I removed my arm from Hiccup, and the two of us slid off Toothless’ back. “Little to the right.”

“Would you come on already?” Ruffnut groaned. “My entire body is going numb. Feels kinda cool.”

“Hey, let’s ask Hiccup.” The two of us looked up to see the twins attempting to balance some large piece of wood, using the backs of their dragons to get up high.

“Let’s ask Hiccup what?” Hiccup asked reluctantly.

“Our new Thorstonton sign, does it need to be a little higher?”

“Thorstonton?” I sighed, though I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

“Yeah, the name of our island.”

“It came to us in a dream,” Tuffnut strained out as he attempted to get the sign up a little higher, before completely dropping it and leaving his sister to attempt and hold it on her own. “That’s right—Same dream. It’s a twin thing. You wouldn’t understand. Anyway, thoughts on the sign?” At that moment, Ruffnut lost her grip on it and it smashed on the ground. “You know what? Never mind. We’ve got more important things on the agenda.”

“I agree. We need to keep fireproofing the island.” 

“No, no, that’s not it,” Tuff dismissed quickly. “We need to give out job assignments.” 

“Job assignments?” I asked warily. Depending on how the twins planned this out, this could either work out really well, or cause things to break as quickly as that sign.

“Oh, we got some good ones. Come along, lads and ladies, don’t be late.” I grabbed onto Hiccup’s arm as the twins flew off toward the dragon training arena on Barf and Belch.

“You can’t genuinely believe we should keep going along with this… right?” Gently, he removed my hand from his arm and laced our fingers together.

“It’s probably not going to be much longer before they give up. Please, just keep humoring them?” He widened his eyes slightly, a look that I’d never been able to say no to before… and he knew it. Despite my frustration, I managed to laugh a little, and placed a hand on his cheek.

“Oh, fine. But just for you.”

We met up with the twins at the arena, where the others were already waiting. The twins stood on the top of their dragon’s heads, and Tuffnut unrolled a large sheet of parchment.

“All right, Fishlegs,” Tuff shouted, definitely too loudly. We could have heard him from where he stood without him yelling like he was standing next to an active volcano. “Says here you are now the official poet laureate of Thorstonton.”

“Do you even know what that means?” Despite Fishlegs’ question, he wore a pretty wide smile.

“We were hoping you would,” Ruff answered honestly. “It’s your job, after all.” With that settled, the twins got back to assignments.

“Astrid, you and Reign are the official royal brush clearers. We don’t want Thorstonton burning down, after all.” Well, at least they were at least acknowledging the fact we needed to do something about the Fireworms.

“Or do we?”

Oh, Thor…

“I’m not clearing brush for you two!” Astrid screamed, throwing her arms out violently. “I’m not clearing anything for you two!”

“Come on, Astrid,” I muttered in her ear, trying to at least get her to calm down.

“You’ll do it. And you’ll like it, little missy.” I elbowed her as she growled, trying to get her to settle down as the twins moved their attentions to Snotlout.

“Snotlout, you, my friend, have an excellent job. You, sir, are our new sergeant at arms.”

This really could only go poorly. Snotlout as the defender of the island? We’d get attacked in no time flat.

“Mm. I like the sound of that—‘arms’.” Snotlout crossed his arms and nodded, straightening his posture slightly.

“Knew you would. All right, Hiccup. Oh, Hiccup, you are our new stable boy.” I placed my fist over my lips in an attempt to stifle my snickering.

“Stable boy,” Hiccup scoffed, his shoulders drooping.

“Come on, Hiccup,” Astrid teased, elbowing him like I had done to her just moments ago.

“So, uh, here’s a question.” Snotlout stepped up, waving his hand at the twins. Surprisingly enough, they actually got Barf and Belch to lower their heads. “What’s a sergeant at arms do anyway?”

“You enforce the rules. If someone doesn’t follow them, you make sure they do. And if things get really nasty, you show them to the fancy new dungeon and give them some yak dung tea. Got it?”

“Dungeon! I like it. Better than ‘stable boy’,” Snotlout teased. Tuffnut suddenly threw the parchment he was holding behind him, allowing it to flutter to the ground like a sleepy dragon.

“Okay, and speaking of new rules, without further ‘adieu’…” He reached into his sleeve and pulled out _another_ parchment, which his sister promptly reached over and snatched from his hands.

“Yeah, no more further ‘adieus’. Anyway, rule number one: everyone must bow to your rulers when they enter the room.”

“Rule number two: everyone must also bow to your rulers when they exit the room.”

“Everyone must bow to their rulers when they are in the room.”

“So, basically, we just bow all the time?” I sort of wished Hiccup hadn’t asked that. If we’d left it the way they said it, I was sure I could have found some sort of loophole to exploit in their little plan at some point.

“Ooh, stable boy, coming in for the big win. That deserves a bow… from you. I’m not doing any bowing.” Hiccup grunted and rolled his eyes, but still gave in and bowed to the twins. “Thank you.”

“Next, there will be a small fee for landing your dragons on the island.”

“And another small fee for taking off.”

“There will be a fee for sleeping.”

“A fee for waking up.”

“A fee for eating.”

“And a small fee for drinking.”

“How about breathing?” Astrid challenged.

“Good idea! Mark that down.” 

“And finally, the letter ‘S’ has been officially removed from the alphabet.” I pinched the bridge of my noise, shaking my head. In what world was this important? “So you’re going to want to avoid words like sword…”

“…severed leg…”

“…severed head…”

“…cyclone…”

“That’s actually a ‘C’,” Fishlegs piped up.

“Uh-uh. Notlout, quiet him!” Tuffnut barked.

“Notlout? Who’s Notlout?” Still, Snotlout walked over to Fishlegs, and the two engaged in a quiet conversation. 

“Do you two realize there is an ‘S’ in the name of your island?” Tuffnut’s eyes went wide and he aggressively pointed in my direction.

“ _Ilence, ubject_! How dare you _ay_ such thing?” I sighed, realizing the inconsistency in that sentence was just a sign of what was to come.

“Any other rules?” I reached over and squeezed Hiccup’s hand, silently thanking him for putting the conversation back on track.

I’d had just about enough of humoring the twins at this point. Their rules, while exactly what one would expect from the likes of Ruffnut and Tuffnut, were completely out of hand and unreasonable, and would lead to an uprising faster than anyone could get anything done. Not to mention, the longer we stood around here, the less time we had to prepare for the Fireworms. Fishlegs gave us a pretty big time frame, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t show up sooner. This charade needed to end soon, otherwise we wouldn’t have an island for the twins to pretend to run.

In a cruel twist of irony, when Tuffnut removed another scroll from his boot, and orange blur shot through it, burning a hole right through the center. I jumped back a bit as the Fireworm landed too close to my feet and started to crawl closer to Hiccup and I. 

“Table boy, clean that up,” Tuffnut ordered. I spotted a little twig to my right and snatched it up, quickly passing it off to Hiccup so he could pick the little dragon up.

“Okay, while I’m doing this, you guys need to stay on top of this Fireworm thing.” Both of us flinched when the twig caught on fire, despite knowing full well that would happen. Hiccup chucked the little dragon onto the ground far away from us, buying us at least a little time. “It’s starting to get pretty real.”

“We’ll decide what’s real or not, table boy,” Tuffnut asserted, waving his hand in our direction. “Now get to work, subjects.”

Once the twins flew away, I turned to Hiccup, smirking and crossing my arms.

“So, you ready to give up and take back control?” I could tell he was trying to hide his annoyance behind an overly-wide smile.

“What? Of course not. We’ve got to let the twins run their course. They’ll come begging for help by tomorrow, I guarantee it.” I forced out laughter, poking his chest.

“Oh, please. I bet you won’t even last until the end of the day. You’re going to lose it, and you’ll be back in charge just in time to take care of those Fireworms.” Finally, a genuine smirk grew on his face.

“You bet, huh? Care to make that official?” He stuck one of his hands out, waiting for me to shake it. We made bets with each other every now and then; it kept us from getting bored. Sure, this one was much riskier than the others, but it couldn’t hurt to at least try.

“Absolutely.” I grabbed his hand and shook it, maybe a little violently sealing our deal. “Loser owes the winner, obviously.”

“Wait, you’re going to owe me what?” I rolled my eyes.

“Very clever, Hiccup. When this is over, _you’re_ going to owe _me_ …” I trailed off, trying to come up with something. “…the usual stakes.”

I offered him one last smirk before calling for Shriek and taking off after Astrid. It would be better to work with each other, rather than splitting up. Especially because my end of things would take much longer with a dragon who couldn’t shoot fire.

“Welcome to the party.” Astrid spread her arms out, gesturing to the various dead bushes and fallen branches.

“Wow, you’ve really outdone yourself this time, Astrid,” I deadpanned. “Now, if you and Stormfly burn the bushes, Shriek and I can move the branches and logs.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s just get this done so the twins don’t start bothering us.” Stormfly shot out magnesium blasts, while I helped secure logs and large branches to Shriek before heading out over the cliff and dumping them into the water. Whenever we came back, Astrid and I would converse briefly, but there really wasn’t much time for us to talk at length. By the time Astrid finished with the northern end of the island, the sun was nearly ready to set, and I was nowhere near finished. Astrid landed Stormfly next to me and wiped her forehead, watching for a moment as I gathered up some smaller branches.

“Do you want me to stick around and help?” she offered.

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m almost done,” I lied. “Besides, the twins will get at you if you’re not doing exactly what they ask you to, and honestly, I don’t want you to have to deal with that headache.”

“You sure?” I nodded as I climbed up onto Shriek’s back. “All right, I’ll see you at dinner, then.”

“Yeah, see you then.”

It wasn’t much longer after Astrid left that the sun began to set, and I became overwhelmed with sweat. I hadn’t thought to bring water with me, so I’d have to do without, but I could at least use a break. Besides, I’d probably need to stop and eat soon, anyways. I leaned against Shriek’s side, gently fanning my face with my hand. My dragon chortled beneath me, looking up at me with wide eyes as though to ask if I was okay. That brought a small smile to my face, and I reached around to pet her.

“Don’t worry, girl, I’m okay.”

My attention was quickly drawn away from her by a large shadow passing overhead, startling me a little. At first, I worried some predatory dragon had come, since the Night Terrors were being kept away, but it just ended up being the twins, glaring down at me as I sat there.

“Uh, what do you think you’re doing, missy?” Ruffnut demanded as they hovered closer to me.

“Taking a break,” I scoffed. “This is pretty intense labor. I just needed a few minutes.” 

“Oh, you’re just taking a break.” I hated the smirk on Tuffnut’s face. “Well, clearly you didn’t know there’s a five mackerel charge for lollygagging.” I rolled my eyes.

“First of all, no, you never said that. And second of all, I’m not paying you in your weird currency just for keeping myself from passing out.” The pair gasped, clutching their chests.

“How _dare_ you call our system ‘weird’.”

“Not to mention, you’re not bowing to your leaders.” Before I could say anything else, Tuffnut whistled in a strange pattern, summoning Snotlout from some point on the horizon. Had he just been waiting there the whole time…? “Notlout, take her to the dungeon.”

Snotlout almost looked afraid to approach me at first, but eventually managed to grab onto my arm and yank me up onto Hookfang. I pushed down my urge to elbow him in the face, trying my best to go along with humoring this whole scenario for as long as I could. I followed along as Snotlout dragged me up to the stables and threw me into one of the dragon pens, where Fishlegs and Astrid were already waiting. I was about to ask them what happened, when someone leaned against one of the bars, and I turned around to see Hiccup with a snarky look on his face.

“What are you in for?”

“Funny,” I sneered. “Disregarding our bet for a moment, exactly how long are you going to let this go on? Have you seen all those Fireworms?”

“Yeah, Hiccup, the migration is picking up steam,” Fishlegs added, backing me up. I wrinkled my nose as Meatlug suddenly passed gas, causing a foul odor to fill the cell for a moment. “Ho ho ho! She does not deal well with prison food.”

“Ech,” Hiccup gagged. “All right, all right, I’ll talk to them. I’m sure I can get this all straightened out.”

By the time the sun had fully set, Hiccup hadn’t come back yet. I paced back and forth on the floor, hearing the sounds of Fireworms dive-bombing through the air and onto the vulnerable vegetation that littered the ground on the island. He needed to get them to give up soon, otherwise we’d all probably burn in here.

Just as I thought that, Snotlout came back, dragging Hiccup by his arm before throwing him into the cell. As Snotlout slammed the door, I couldn’t resist, and slid up close to him.

“So, what are you in for?” He narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at me.

“Reign, please.”

“What? Just trying to be funny.” His hardened expression didn’t lighten up at all, so I nudged him lightly and flashed a cheesy smile. Thankfully, that caused the intensity on his face to break a little bit, and he draped an arm over my shoulders.

Our attentions were drawn outside of the cell as Snotlout came shambling in, holding the back of his shirt up and seemingly attempting to drag himself. He threw open the door to the cell with his free hand, then proceeded to jump and belly-flop onto the wooden floor.

“Snotlout?” I shrugged as he closed the door on himself.

“I was framed,” he muttered, clearly embarrassed.

“All right, that’s it,” Astrid grumbled as she pushed Hookfang’s tail out of her face. “We’re breaking out of here.”

“Great. Then we’re going back to my plan.” Snotlout repeated the motion of dragging a finger across his throat and hissing.

“Guys, guys, we’re fine.” The worried look on Hiccups’ face did nothing to reassure me. “There’s nothing to worry about. I mean, the twins can’t be that oblivious!”

“I’m sorry, have you _met_ the twins?” I snapped.

A bright light coming from the doorway of the stables caught my eye. I removed myself from Hiccup’s hold and rushed to the cell door, gasping as my eyes met a large wall of smoke and fire slowly crawling its way toward the outpost.

“Hiccup, we have a problem.” He rushed over and stood next to me, following the point of my finger. It took him a minute to respond, as though his brain shut down. 

“Okay… Reign, keep an eye on the fire. Everyone, we have to figure out a way to escape in case the twins don’t come here within the next couple of minutes.” Slowly, I turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised. “What?”

“We have our dragons, genius. They can just blast the lock off the door.” I looked back at the wall of fire and smoke, which was now _significantly_ closer than it was just a moment ago. “That smoke’s getting close. And where there’s smoke—“

“—there’s Fireworms,” Fishlegs finished.

“All right, you know what? Experiment over.” I breathed a sigh of relief and moved away from the door. “We are getting out there and stopping them before there’s nothing left of this island.”

“Finally.” I set a hand down on Shriek, preparing for a fast exit.

“Toothless, plasma blast.”

Right as Toothless finished charging up the plasma blast, Ruffnut and Tuffnut frantically slid to the cell door, hyperventilating slightly and looking as though they’d seen a ghost.

“Hey, guys?” Tuff trembled. Toothless slammed his mouth shut, causing smoke to come out of his nostrils.

“Now’s our chance. Hookfang, destroy!” Before the Monstrous Nightmare could do anything, Hiccup stepped in front of them, putting a smile on his face.

“Oh, hey, rulers,” he greeted. “How’s stuff in the old kingdom?”

“Having lots of fun with all the smoke and fire?” I teased, hoping they’d just let us go.

“Yes.” Tuffnut quickly changed his tune. “No. Okay, fine. As it turns out, we can’t save Thorstonton by ourselves.” Hiccup and I met eyes for a moment, exchanging victorious smiles. “So we talked about it, and we hereby decree that you can all come and help us put out the fires.”

“Ah, that’s a shame,” Hiccup sighed, leaning against Toothless, “’cause from where I sit, you guys are on your own. I mean, rules are rules, right?” Toothless purred, almost as though he was responding to what Hiccup was saying.

“You have to help us save our island!” Ruffnut begged. “It’s all we’ve got!”

“I don’t know,” Hiccup shrugged as he picked something off his armor. “Guys?”

“I think you’ve got to stick to your guns,” I answered, trying to keep my laughter down. “You make a rule, you follow it through. Otherwise it’s… you know.”

“Anarchy,” Fishlegs cut in. “I’m with them.”

“Come on, you guys, please? Is there anything I can do? Name it, we’ll do anything.” And there was the perfect opportunity to strike.

“Well, now that you mention it…” Hiccup pretended to think things over. “I suppose we could consider one possibility.” The Fireworms suddenly began to shoot into the dragon stables, meaning we were out of time.

“Anything!” the twins cried at the same time.

“I’ll make you assistant ruler.” Hiccup chose not to respond, instead choosing to look down at his fingers. “Ruler’s best pal? Second string ruler?”

“No, I have a better idea, actually.” Hiccup’s teasing tone completely melted away, leaving him stern and authoritative. “We divide the island up amongst all of us. We all own it. There’s no ruler, no sister of the ruler.” Ruffnut gasped, offended. “We’re all rulers.”

“What?” Tuffnut jumped back from the bars of the cage. “That’s blasphemous! You can’t do that to the ruler.” Tufts of smoke wafted in front of Tuff’s face, and although it took him a moment, he realized a Fireworm had caught his clothing on fire, causing him to panic and sprint to a water trough, dunking himself in the cool liquid. “Okay, you guys can have whatever you want! The island’s all of ours. Just get these things out of here!”

Satisfied, Hiccup ordered Toothless to blast the lock off the dragon pen, releasing all of us captives. Immediately, everyone jumped on their dragons and headed right for the bulk of the Fireworms. They lit up the night sky, creating an orange glow that, under any other circumstance, could almost be considered beautiful. But there were bigger things to worry about right now than the lights being casted over the island.

“Okay, Fishlegs, gather up the Night Terrors and take them to the cave,” I ordered, gesturing to the relative location of the cave.

“On it.” He broke off from everyone, dipping down under the canopy of the forest to locate the nocturnal dragons.

“Okay, guys, we need to redirect the Fireworms around our island and on to the next one in the chain.” Hiccup pointed at the small island not too far off the coast of ours. It could work, but we’d need to make sure they didn’t come back.

“You really think it’s gonna make a dent?” Astrid shouted over the whizzing of the Fireworms. “I mean, look at them all.”

“Do you have a better idea?” I challenged. “We don’t really have a choice.”

While the other riders used fire to clear out the Fireworms, I clapped my hands over my ears and ducked down a bit.

“Shriek, sonic boom!” She roared as loudly as she could, creating a disturbance in the pattern of Fireworms that allowed us to shoot through. Unfortunately, rather than scattering, the Fireworms just fell right back into formation, completely undeterred by our interruptions. We had to think of something else.

“Fall back!” I called down to the other riders. “Maybe we can at least protect our base. Let’s get started on building a fire break.”

We got as close to Dragon’s Edge as we could, and got right to work, digging and clearing away the vegetation all along the line. A few times, I could feel myself starting to give out from exhaustion, but I forced myself to stay awake, spurred on by the thought that we needed to save the outpost, if nothing else, before the Fireworms could reach us. Sometime around when the sun came up, I’d gained a second wind, and tried my best to help guide Shriek along the planned line of the fire break.

“Just keep digging, guys.” The exhaustion was evident in Hiccup’s voice. “The fire can’t get past it if there’s only dirt.”

The warmth of the fires behind me caused a tingle to run down my spine, quickly replaced by a burning sensation in my lungs as smoke rushed into my nostrils, overwhelming me, and I couldn’t help but start coughing. Once it started, it almost became uncontrollable, to the point where I could barely think straight as Hiccup landed from his surveying of the damage.

“What do we do now?” Astrid managed to get out between coughs. “It’s getting really dangerous.” Everyone struggled to try and come up with something. As my mind wandered, I thought back to Fishlegs, who hadn’t come back yet, which likely meant he was waiting things out with the Night Terrors in the cave.

The cave…

“The cave!” I began to choke again, attempting to catch my breath. “We’ll go there and wait it out with the Night Terrors.”

“Uh, Reign, you may want to come up with another plan.” My heart dropped into my stomach as Fishlegs and Meatlug landed beside me.

“Why?”

“I couldn’t find the Night Terrors. I called them until my lips almost fell off. They’re gone.” Our last option went up in smoke… just like the island.

“I told you we should have bailed on this place,” Snotlout jeered.

“No, we’re not bailing.” My eyebrows flew up on my forehead as Tuffnut stood atop Belch’s head. “This island is ours.” So close…

“Tuff?” Tuffnut quickly corrected himself.

“It’s all of ours. And no one burns our equally-shared island to the ground but us.”

My last remaining pieces of hope completely fizzled away as I looked to the horizon, and spotted a large dragon among the small Fireworms.

“I may have to disagree with you there.”

“What the—is that—“ Astrid stuttered, trying to grasp the full gravity of the situation.

“The Fireworm queen. If she’s here, then the entire flock can’t be far behind it.” I looked to Hiccup, reluctantly nodding my head. We had tried our best, but there wasn’t anything more we could do at this point.

“Well, that settles it. Grab what you can. We’re out of here.” Snotlout’s somber expression suddenly switched as he looked closer at the Fireworms approaching from the distance.

“Uh, Hiccup, that’s not the Fireworm queen.”

I pushed my head forward a little more, trying to spot what have Snotlout the confidence to say that. It was hard to see against the frantic darting and flapping of the Fireworms, but there was something strange about the pattern of scales on the Fireworm queen. Not to mention, she was far darker than I would have expected a Fireworm queen to be.

I breathed a large sigh of relief as I realized what was going on.

“It’s the Night Terrors!” I cheered. “They’re protecting the island by forming a Fireworm queen.”

“There’s not going to be anything left to protect if all of those Fireworms land here.” Astrid had a point. I got so caught up in the joy of what the Night Terrors were doing, I forgot all the little Fireworms were still a pretty big threat.

“Well, we just won’t let them.” I leaned one arm down on Shriek’s back, giving my full attention to Hiccup.

“Okay, I sense a plan.”

“I’m gonna lead the Night Terrors out to sea. Hopefully the Fireworms will follow. You guys stay behind and put out these fires.”

The moment Hiccup and Toothless took off, I turned to the others, feeling something strange surging in my chest. I didn’t even have to think, the orders I gave just came naturally to me, like it was in my blood.

I guess I was more of my father’s daughter than I thought.

“Okay, Astrid and Fishlegs, you come with me to get the barrels of water. We can take care of the fires in the trees with those. Snotlout, whatever you do, _do not_ let Hookfang light up. Focus on stomping out the fires on the ground as best as you can. Ruff, Tuff, get Barf and Belch to dig into the dirt and throw it onto the bushes. Hopefully, that will be enough to put most of these fires out. Everyone understand?” I only received nods in response. “Excellent. Let’s get to work.”

Fishlegs, Astrid, and I spread out, able to dump a few barrels at a time before we had to go back and get more. The path to the water troughs and barrels went directly over Snotlout and the twins, who were digging and stomping vigorously. As the fires started to go out, the Fireworms looked to the sky and began to head toward the Night Terrors, who were now closer to the other island than they were Dragon’s Edge.

“It’s working!”

The last of the Fireworms finally disappeared, allowing us to fully douse the flames just as Hiccup and Toothless returned with the Night Terrors. The sun had fully come up by this point, almost symbolic of the danger passing, but we still hadn’t completely finished here. Though everyone looked like they were about to collapse from exhaustion, we headed up toward the claim stone, so the twins could renounce their leadership formally.

They always had to make such a show out of everything.

“Ruff, Tuff, you guys did the right thing.” I tried my best to stay upright as Hiccup and I stood before the twins. “I just hope you guys learned something in all of this.”

“Yeah, we sure did. Leading blow.” I sighed dramatically at Tuffnut. “Oh, we don’t have to do the ‘S’ thing anymore. Leading blows,” Tuff declared as he slammed his helmet back on top of his head.

“Seriously blows.”

“You know what, though? At least we have this cool claim stone to remember our glorious reign.”

All of us watched helplessly—not that we really wanted to do anything about it-- as Meatlug wandered up to the claim stone, sniffed it, and proceeded to swallow it in one bite.

“No respect,” Tuffnut shook his head. Meatlug suddenly looked sick, and just barely missed Ruffnut’s feet with a blast of magma.

“No respect at all.”

I felt someone grab my shoulders, and I happily gave in as Hiccup pulled me against his side.

“Come on, let’s get back,” he yawned. “I don’t know about you, but I need sleep.” I nodded lazily, until I was reminded of something.

“Technically, you lost the bet. Which means you have to pay up.” Hiccup almost managed to protest, but he was interrupted by another yawn. “Don’t worry, I won’t make you clean the dragons until tomorrow. For now, I agree—we need sleep.”

Though the sun shone intensely overhead, Hiccup and I immediately flew to our hut and got underneath the covers, slipping into sleep in just a matter of seconds.


	9. Crushing It! (Hiccup)

“Ah! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”

I shot awake and bolted upright at the sound of Snotlout’s screaming, careful not to hit Reign as I removed my arms from her waist. As Snotlout rolled around and scooted on the ground, attempting to put the fire on his person out, Reign and I helped each other up and marched over to the map pinned on the wall of the clubhouse and scanned it carefully, following the line from the trap to the next predicted location.

“The Rumblehorn! It’s headed for the east beach. Come on, you guys!”

Toothless and I led the charge toward the east beach, hoping we left in time to catch this dragon before it got away.

For the last few weeks, Reign and I had been attempting to track and study the patterns of an elusive dragon wreaking havoc on Dragon’s Edge. For one reason or another, no matter how carefully we plotted out each path and rigged each trap, we had yet to see the creature in person. Every now and then, we could feel the ground tremble as it bounded to wherever it was attempting to get next, but when we chased after it, we’d just come back to find some aspect of Dragon’s Edge destroyed, forcing us to rebuild and try again. At this rate, frustrating wasn’t enough to describe the situation.

Reign raised her lantern as we landed, trying her best to illuminate the dragon trapped in the net above our heads. I felt a surge of pride as I watched the net swing, knowing this terror would finally come to an end.

“Finally. We got it!” Strangely, the Rumblehorn hadn’t roared or started thrashing yet.

“Everybody stand back,” I exhorted, pushing my arms out to form a barrier between the dragon and the other riders.

“I didn’t think it would be so smelly.” I hadn’t noticed the odor, but now that Tuffnut had pointed it out, it felt overwhelming, as though it was forcing itself into my nostrils.

“I didn’t think it would be so hairy,” Ruffnut trembled.

“You try shaving with a hook for an arm!”

My head drooped at the sound of a familiar voice, coming right in time as whatever was in the net moved. Of course we hadn’t caught the Rumblehorn; things were just too easy that way.

“The Rumblehorn talks! Quick, smack it.” I watched Reign roll her eyes before she walked over to the rope holding the net up and unsheathed her sword.

“Cut me down, you simpleton!” Gobber managed to push his head through one of the holes in the ropes, glaring down at the twins with contempt.

“And it’s got a bad attitude.” I genuinely couldn’t tell if the twins thought this was still the Rumblehorn, or if they were just keeping this bit running for an uncomfortably long amount of time.

“Eh, never mind.”

Without waiting for Reign to cut him down, Gobber wiggled his hook hand free and swung it across the apex of the net, causing it to fall apart and send him tumbling to the ground. Impressively enough, he managed to land on his feet, without wobbling even a little bit.

“Gobber, what did you do with our Rumblehorn?” Gobber dusted himself off a bit as he straightened up. 

“Rumblehorn?” he asked, glancing at all of us with confusion. “What’s a Rumblehorn?”

“A new dragon that’s been trying to chase us off the island,” Fishlegs informed him.

“Yeah, us and everything else.” Reign lowered the lantern slightly as she spoke, so as to not blind anyone.

“We’ve been trying to catch it and relocate it,” I added.

“Yet, we caught you. Yay, us,” Snotlout deadpanned, pushing himself away from Hookfang. The look of confusion on Gobber’s face only deepened the more we spoke.

“You’re trying to catch a dragon with a net that can’t hold a one-legged, one-armed Viking? Amateurs.” Though Gobber wasn’t the intended prey for the net, he made a strong point.

“Not too late to club him still,” Tuffnut murmured, getting uncomfortably close. “I can give him a little ‘ah! Uh!’” He jabbed his elbow downward, which somehow was meant to symbolize clubbing someone. “You know, ‘uh, uh, uh!’” I remained silent for a moment, unsure of what to say to that, then shook my head and walked back to Toothless.

“Yeah, we should just get back and check on the dragon base.” I let Gobber up onto Toothless first, then climbed on in front of him, flying us right to the edge of the base. Reign passed the lantern off to me so I could check for subtler damage, while she kept her eyes out for the bigger, more obvious destruction.

“Well, let’s see what you’ve done with the place.”

For the most part, things seemed pretty intact. That was, until we reached the dragon training arena. The shields had been knocked to the ground, the barrels were completely destroyed, and the dome we used to close up the arena for the night had been ripped to shreds. I sighed, disheartened, as Reign and I fully assessed the damage.

“It looks very, well—“

“Trashed!” Reign threw her hands in the air then leaned against my side, almost in a show of dramatics. I chuckled and draped an arm around her shoulders.

“Your words, not mine.” 

“The Rumblehorn must have hit us while we were out chasing you,” I sighed. I was about to set the lantern down and go to help Fishlegs and Snotlout clear the rocks, when Tuffnut jumped to my side again.

“Last chance. I can still club him. Come on. Club, club, club. Join the club.”

“As much as I love a good clubbing,” Gobber interrupted, diffusing Tuffnut, “even my own, it will have to wait. You and I have to talk.” Gobber gestured between him and I, before drifting his eyes to Reign. “This could concern you, too, lass.” She nodded as Gobber focused his attention back on me. “I’ve come with disturbing news about your father, Hiccup.” Immediately, my mind began to race, fearing the worst. It must have been visible because Reign reached up and squeezed my hand, leaving our fingers entwined.

“Is he all right?” I asked warily.

“Oh, he’s fine.”

“That’s a relief.” I rolled my eyes a little, internally laughing at my jumping to conclusions.

“But, then again, not so fine.”

Oh, for the love of Thor…

“Gobber, you’re killing me. Is my father okay or not?” Gobber sometimes had difficulty giving a straight answer, but right now wasn’t the time for him to dance around the subject.

“Oh, he’s fit as a dragon. Unfortunately, he’s as ornery as one, too.” Toothless snapped his head up and stared daggers at Gobber, growling. “No offense. I’ve never seen him like this—angry, shouting at everyone.” Nothing really struck me as odd as Gobber listed everything off.

“Actually, that sounds like vintage Stoick the Vast to me,” I shrugged.

“You think I would have sailed in a boat by myself for a week if it were vintage Stoick the Vast? He’s driving the village crazy!” That still didn’t seem like anything unusual, but if Gobber really wanted me to go and check on him, I figured it was at least worth a trip.

“All right, I guess I’d better see what’s going on with him.” Gobber’s dire expression quickly brightened.

“Good idea.” I glanced down at Reign, whose curls pretty much blocked her face from my view. Smiling, I reached up with my free arm and brushed some of them aside, allowing me to look her in the eyes.

“You don’t have to ask,” she assured me. “I’m coming.”

“Great. Thank you.” I leaned down and kissed her forehead before she gently spun herself out of my grasp and wandered over to her dragon.

“You want to ride back with me on Toothless?” I offered to Gobber, scratching behind Toothless ear plate.

“Actually, I think I might stay a while, help repair your wee dragon base.” Reign and I climbed up onto our dragons, preparing to take off. “See if I can offer up some of my dragon-killing experience to help defend against the Rumblehorn. If there’s time, I’ll take Tuffnut up on that clubbing.”

Gobber tried his best to cover up his true intentions with the guise of helping out, but I saw right through it.

“I get it. So basically, you’re hiding out from my father.”

“One might look at it that way,” Gobber admitted casually. I could hear Reign scoff behind me, and when I looked over, she and Shriek padded up to us.

“Well, milady, I guess we’re off to Berk.” I watched as Reign’s cheeks turned pink at the use of the nickname. Even now, I could make her all flustered with just a simple name, and it never stopped being adorable. To think, a Viking warrior, taken down by a nickname.

“Then let’s get going,” she encouraged. With that, our dragons launched off the ground, propelling upwards until we were high enough, at which point they leveled off. Immediately, I turned to her and eyed her carefully, catching her attention. “You’re giving me that look.”

“Just making sure you weren’t about to fall off of Shriek. You seem to fall asleep on the backs of dragons a lot,” I teased, causing her jaw to drop.

“Hey, what works for me works for me. Don’t judge.” I pulled on Toothless’ reigns, moving him in closer to Reign and Shriek.

“Lucky for you, I think it’s cute.” She made a big show of rolling her eyes.

“Ah, yes, thank Thor for that. Whatever would I do, thinking that you were put off by my falling asleep against your back.” She drawled her words out, maintaining a straight expression the entire time. “At least I don’t snore.” Now it was my turn to be dramatic. I slapped a hand over my chest, acting as though she’d dealt a fatal blow.

“I only snore sometimes, excuse you, and I happen to know that when I do, it’s not that loud.”

“Mm. Well, it’s certainly nothing compared to your father.” She relaxed, resting her hands on Shriek’s back again. “Yet another reason I’m glad we have our own place somewhere.”

“Well, I’m glad you’ve been enjoying it because, depending on how long this is going to take, we might have to deal with his snoring for a night or two.” I reached over and took Reign’s hand as she groaned.

“That just means I’m going to sleep _really_ well when we get back to Dragon’s Edge.” Without even thinking, I scooted forward, making room on Toothless’ saddle. 

“If you want to sleep now, go right ahead. I don’t mind staying up.” The way she smiled at me caused my heart to flutter a little.

“No, no, I’m fine. I’m still hopped up on the Rumblehorn adrenaline. Plus, I’d prefer staying up and talking with you.” She turned bright red as I turned her hand over and kissed it.

By the time we reached Berk, the buildings were casting the shadows that came with the afternoon sun. Reign sort of looked like she was about to pass out, but she kept insisting she was fine. Translation? No matter what I said, her mind was made up to stay awake, so I wouldn’t be able to convince her otherwise. She was stubborn like that, but then again, I really didn’t have room to talk.

I glanced around as we landed, trying to find any signs of life. Strangely enough, it looked as though everyone was inside their huts today, something pretty uncommon on Berk. Even the stands of fruits and fish were closed up for the day. Reign and I met eyes and shrugged, one equally as confused as the other. 

“Hmm, it’s quieter than usual,” I observed, thinking out loud.

“Do you think something happened overnight?” I opened my mouth to answer, when a booming voice from nearby shook the peaceful silence. 

“Shoddy workmanship! That’s what it is!” I knew that voice, especially when it was shouting, all too well. I guess this was what Gobber was talking about.

“Okay, follow the sound of the angry Viking.”

Reign, Toothless, Shriek, and I walked all the way to the armory, unsure of exactly where my father was. Thankfully for us, the closer we got to the large building, the louder the shouting got, pretty much confirming he was inside.

“I said I wanted these weapons arranged by deadliness! Swords…” I felt Reign grab onto my waist and yank me to the ground, just as a sword went flying over our heads. “…axes…” The two of us flinched as an axe came hurtling out of the storage building, burying itself in the lever of the catapult that shielded us. “…bludgeons…” Reign grabbed onto my shoulders and pushed me down, allowing the club to sail over our heads without hitting us. “…then maces!” The mace my father threw struck the catapult’s lever, activating it and launching a sheep nestling in it over the rooftops.

With his crusade finished, my dad stormed out, abruptly turning on his heel to shout one last time before stomping off to Odin-knows-where.

“If I used them on you, you wouldn’t forget how deadly they were!”

Slowly, Reign and I rose from the ground, watching my father walk away with dumbfounded expressions. Rarely did I hear him threaten someone on Berk that hadn’t done anything wrong, at least seemingly. But maybe the weapons actually _were_ arranged wrong.

“Hiccup! Reign! Thank Thor you’re here.” Reign and I turned to see Sven, waving a trembling arm at us. “You’ve got to help us. Hiccup, your father has become unbearable!”

“Well, to be fair, Sven, you did have the weapons out of order,” Reign attempted to reason.

“That’s because yesterday he told me to arrange them by length! The day before it was by pointiness. And the day before that, it was by name! Did you know he gave each weapon its own nickname?” Sven took a deep breath once he finished his rant.

“Well, I have to admit, that is really weird. Uh, all right, I’ll go talk to him.” Though I had some ideas on where my dad could have gone, I figured it would just be best to follow the sound of his voice. He was louder than usual today-- that could play to our advantage.

“I mean, seriously. Who names their mace ‘Daisy’?”

I tried to think through anything and everything that could irritate my father to the point of nearly killing Sven in his rage. Though I’d seen him get like this with Alvin and Dagur, it was rare to see such concentrated rage directed at a resident of Berk. Had there been an attack we didn’t know about? Or maybe he caught wind of something?

“Hiccup?” I snapped out of my daze and looked down at Reign, who was now holding my hand and looking at me with curious eyes. “You’ve got that look on your face that makes me worried. What’s on your mind?” I sighed, squeezing her hand in an attempt to provide her some reassurance.

“I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on with my dad. I mean, I’ve seen him mad before, but he’s never been like this.”

“Yeah…” Reign sighed. “He seems touchier than normal. Clearly, something’s bothering him.”

“For a minute, I thought maybe Dagur had launched some sort of attack, and we just don’t know it yet, but—“ Reign interrupted me with a scoff.

“You really think my brother would make any of his attacks _subtle_? He would make sure we knew it was him.” I could tell she was starting to get worked up, so I squeezed her hand. “Sorry. We’re here to focus on your dad.”

“Reign, it’s fine. You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” I assured her.

We both stopped dead in our tracks at the sound of someone shouting, though I couldn’t make out their specific words. Despite that, Reign and I both knew exactly who it was, so we picked up our pace and followed the sound. My dad’s yelling eventually led us all the way up the hills, where my father stood in a nearly unplowed field.

“For Thor’s sake, you plow like an old woman!” Despite the fact he was talking to Gothi, that was actually pretty insulting for her. That little woman had a shocking amount of strength in her for her age. “Gah! Hag.” Reluctantly, Gothi dropped her plow, allowing my father to pick it up. “This is how you plow!” With a determined yank, my father began to drag the plow along the dirt, far faster than seemed healthy. “Oh, it’s so simple. You can’t even…”

“Hmm.” Suddenly, something grabbed onto my ear and yanked me away from the tree Reign and I had been standing by. I got swung around before Gothi released the grip of her stick, but the pain still pounded in my ear. “Gothi! You know, personally, I don’t know what he’s talking about. I-I love your plowing.” She continued to stare at me, completely unamused. “You are by far my favorite plower in all of Berk. That-That’s some good plowing, yeah.” Gothi’s hand balled into a fist, glancing around with frantic eyes before she began to scribble furiously. “Uh, yes, I-I agree. He is totally out of control.” I was taken aback slightly by her next set of words. “Hey, watch the language. He’s still my father. I’ll talk to him, I promise.”

When I turned around, my dad had already disappeared, leaving Reign and I to attempt to track him down again. Thankfully, Reign was pretty sure she saw him heading in the direction of the dragon training arena, and when we landed, I could hear the clinks of my father throwing axes at the wall.

“Do you want me to stay here?” Reign asked, placing a hand on my shoulder. I thought, for a moment, of saying yes, but honestly, having someone else with me when I faced my dad made me feel a little better.

“No, actually, I’d prefer if you came with me.” She chuckled and lowered her hand.

“Ah, I see… Well, let’s go, then.”

We entered right as my father raised another axe in the air—probably not the best idea. I cleared my throat in an attempt to get his attention, but when he swung around, it looked like he was about to let the axe fly from his hands, making Reign and I jump and step back slightly.

“Dad, please don’t kill me!” I shouted frantically, throwing my hands over my head. “It’s your son!”

“Hiccup!” The axe slipped out behind him, hitting the target he’d clearly been aiming for dead in the center. Reign jumped back quite a bit as my dad rushed up to me and pulled me into a crushing hug, restricting my breathing.

“Oh! Good to see you, too, Dad,” I wheezed out. “Now-Now if I could just, um, breathe?” Realizing he was hurting me, my father quickly released me, prompting Reign to make her way over to my side and place a hand on my back as I coughed.

“I’m sorry, just happy to see my son. You brought Reign, too? Brilliant!” Considering how my dad had been just moments ago, seeing him like this was pretty off-putting.

“It’s nice to see you, too, Stoick,” she greeted, waving her free hand once.

“Well, that’s great. My-My cracked ribs and I are happy to see you, too. What are you doing all the way out at the academy?”

“Oh, I come up here for the peace and quiet,” he explained, making his way over to the saddle Thornado—his old Thunderdrum—used to wear and polishing it. “Tired of hearing people complaining—‘Stoick, you’re being too tough. Stoick, you’re being too picky. Stoick, you’re cutting off my air supply.’” My eyes widened as my dad made a choking motion with his hands.

“Hey, hey, is that Thornado’s old saddle?” I asked, trying to divert the conversation in an attempt to keep him from getting angry again. “Wow, Dad, you really kept it shiny,” I marveled as I ran my hand over it.

“Well, just because one dragon is gone doesn’t mean I’m going to let a valuable piece of equipment fall into disrepair.” My dad stared at the saddle a moment longer, an almost mournful look in his eyes, before he snapped out of it and went to remove the axes he’d thrown from the wall. “But enough about me. What brings my world-traveler son and future daughter-in-law back to Berk?”

I grimaced as Reign closed her eyes, exhaling sharply at the use of my dad’s attribute for her. I’d talked to my dad about this on multiple occasions, but he _really_ seemed to want to push it on us whenever he got the chance.

“Well, we-we still—“ Our conversation was cut off by Sven, who cautiously entered the academy, appearing skittish and cautious.

“Eh, Stoick, I don’t mean to interrupt, but I’ve got all those weapons arranged by deadliness, just like you wanted them.” My stomach churned as my dad’s expression immediately hardened.

“And who said I wanted them that way?” he demanded, passing the axe he was holding from one hand to the other. “Does anyone around her listen?”

Reign shoved me, urging me to step up in front of my dad to keep him from throwing that axe at Sven, which could potentially kill him… definitely the last thing we wanted.

“Dad! Dad! Dad! I just had a great idea.” I couldn’t keep down the nervous laughter that escaped in my words.

“If it involves me hurling an axe at Sven’s head, let’s hear it.” Sven squeaked in alarm, grabbing onto a shield and holding it up in front of his person.

“Oh, I-I hear my sheep calling.” I gave Sven enough time to run away before I moved around the other side of my dad.

“I was thinking something a little more relaxing. Something to take the edge off?”

“Edge?” my dad snapped. “What edge?” Strangely enough, when I turned to look at my dad, he seemed to have an out-of-body moment and realized something was wrong with him. He let out a sad sigh and slowly lowered the axe, his shoulders drooping. “Okay, I’m listening.” I felt this strange regret wash over me, rendering me speechless for a moment. Thankfully, Reign stepped up, offering the both of us a smile.

“Yeah, so we were thinking, why don’t you take a couple of days off, come with us to see the dragon base?” Though he seemed willing at first, my dad quickly started to wave his hand dismissively.

“No, impossible. There’s far too much to do around here.”

As my dad started to walk away, Reign and I looked to each other, seemingly coming to the same conclusion. She nodded toward my dad, encouraging me to go after him. I wasn’t going to give up that easily. The people of Berk _clearly_ needed a break from my dad.

“Okay, Dad, well, tell you what,” I set a hand on my dad’s back and turned him around, drawing him away from his weapons and saddles, “if I’m being honest, the reason we’re really here is that we’ve got a dragon problem back on the island.” That gave him pause, thankfully.

“Dragon problem? What kind of a dragon problem?”

“Well, you see, we’re trying to relocate a new species of dragon, and I thought we could handle it, but we could really use your help.”

Finally, it seemed like I’d managed to change my dad’s mind.

“I suppose I could spare a moment, if you really need me.”

“Oh, we do. We really, really do. So gather up your things, and let’s get saddled up. You can ride with me on Toothless.”

My dad finished straightening things up around the academy, and when I made my way back to Reign and the dragons, she wrapped her arms around my waist, smiling up at me.

“Nice job,” she complimented, pulling us closer together. “This’ll be good… both for him, and the people of Berk. You have excellent skills of persuasion, love.” Before I could say anything else to her, the words my father spoke earlier popped into my head, making me feel guilty.

“I’m really sorry about what my dad called you.” I expected Reign’s joyful expression to melt away, but strangely enough, it remained cemented in place. “I’ve talked to him about that what feels like an endless amount of times, but it feels like no matter what I do, he’s not going to give up on his hopes.”

“Thor, Hiccup, you act like he called me some abominable name,” she laughed. “Look, I’ve come to the realization that, until something actually happens, people are going to keep asking, they’re going to keep voicing their expectations, and things like that are just going to happen. But we’re taking things on our own timeline, and we’re both happy with that, right?” I nodded, moving one of my hands to rest on her cheek. “So then that’s all that matters.”

The warmth in my chest returned, compelling me to lean down and kiss her. She sighed, and I felt her smile just before I knew I had to break away. We had to get ready to go, meaning I had to put my dad’s saddle on Toothless to make sure he wouldn’t have to ride bare back. Shriek was pretty much ready to go, so Reign stuck by my side as we adjusted Thornado’s saddle to fit around Toothless. Eventually, my dad finished cleaning up around the academy, and we headed off toward Dragon’s Edge. I figured, when we got back, the others would still be rebuilding, but instead, we were met by the fire of their dragons. Thinking fast, I pulled on Toothless, just narrowly managing to avoid getting burnt.

“Hey, it’s us. Cut it out!” I shouted down, giving us enough of a clearing to hide behind the giant rock wall they built in the time we’d been gone.

“Sorry about that.” Tuff waved, as if that somehow erased the fact they’d just shot at us. “Nice to see you, chief. You’re looking very fit. Your hands seem to be rough and well-worked. Anyway, welcome to Rumblehorn hell.”

“You weren’t kidding about having dragon problems,” my dad remarked as we disembarked the dragons and made our way over to the rest of the group.

“Is anybody hurt?” Reign asked, moving closer to Astrid.

“Well, sort of.”

Astrid directed our attention to Gobber, who sat on the ground and had gone cross-eyed. Clearly, something hit him in the time we were gone, something strong; it took quite a bit of force to even inconvenience Gobber, so for him to look like he wasn’t with it must have taken an extreme amount of strength.

“Hello, lovies,” Gobber cooed as he waved his hand. “Who’d like some figgy pudding?” He removed one of his boots from his hook and held it out in front of him, dangling it as though it were some incredible prize.

“What’s wrong with him?” my dad asked, strangely unphased.

“Well, chief, you can start with the peg leg: And then you add in the hook, and the bad breath, weird neck. I mean, look at his neck.”

“He’ll be fine,” Snotlout interjected, cutting off Tuffnut’s mindless rambling. “He got hit by a watchtower.”

“That doesn’t sound like something that would make a person fine,” Reign muttered, shaking her head. Gobber’s raucous laughter caused her and I to jump, and we darted our eyes up to see him laughing at Toothless, as though he’d told the funniest joke in the known Viking world.

“Ah, you’re killing me!” he guffawed. “Who knew you were such a card?” Clearly uncomfortable, Toothless slunk away.

“Guys, these Rumblehorn attacks are getting out of hand,” Astrid sighed. “We have to do something.” I started to rack my brain, attempting to formulate some sort of idea, while my dad just started talking.

“Okay, then, first thing’s first. We start with—“

“Astrid and Reign, you search the eastern coastline,” I interjected. “Ruff, Tuff, you have the west. My father and I will take the middle of the island. Fishlegs and Snotlout, you take care of Gobber and keep fixing the base.”

“Got it.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute there, dragon master.” Snotlout was briefly interrupted by Gobber poking his finger into the former’s cheek.

“Hello, little fella.” I could hear Reign snicker from behind me.

“How come I have to stay behind?” The two of us tried our best to ignore as Gobber got up in Snotlout’s face again, this time proclaiming he was a dragon and growling.

“Okay, fine, you want to hunt the unstoppable, bloodthirsty dragon instead?”

“Bloodthirsty dragon, huh?” Snotlout’s eyes bounced between his two options, genuinely attempting to figure out whether dealing with a delirious Gobber or a killer dragon was worse. “On second thought, I don’t want to give you guys an unfair advantage. So I should probably stay behind and protect one of the archipelago’s national treasures.”

“The sun is a shiny potato covered in drawn butter.” Gobber began to tear up, as though the thought of the sun being a food just out of his reach was both beautiful and disappointing.

“And the moon is a scoop of ice cream.”

I felt like I couldn’t look away from the scene in front of me, despite how genuinely unsettling it was. I had to force myself to look away and climb up on Toothless. Once my dad was secure and ready to go, we shot up and headed for the dead middle of the island, where the largest amount of traps had been laid. I decided it would be best to start by just flying over our section of the island, checking for any disturbances in the trees and brush below.

“Ah, it’s good to be back up in the air again. No wonder you never come back to visit.” I couldn’t tell if that was an attempt to guilt trip or not. That wasn’t really my dad’s style, but never say never. “This highland is spectacular.”

“Thanks, Dad, but we’re not going to be able to keep any of it if we don’t solve our Rumblehorn problem.” I pulled on Toothless to get him to go to the left, keeping a careful eye on the movement of the leaves.

“Right. When exactly did you start having trouble with it?”

“A few weeks ago,” I answered as Toothless weaved between stone stacks. “We didn’t even know it was on the island. And then suddenly, it was everywhere. First it just went after wild dragons, then it started coming after us.”

“And how many dragons has it killed?”

“None yet.”

It was something that perplexed Reign and I. A dragon as clearly territorial as the Rumblehorn would be expected to kill any living thing attempting to take up where it wanted to live. But this dragon hadn’t done anything except destroy our base.

“This dragon is more than strong. It’s fast, it’s smart, and it’s elusive. We’ve never even gotten a good look at it.” My fists unconsciously began to clench, thinking of how many times we’d failed to get a handle on this dragon.

“This does seem like quite the challenge, doesn’t it?” I found myself able to laugh.

“Yeah, it does.” My dad grabbed onto my shoulders and shook me slightly, his laughter brightening my spirits a little. It was nice to see my dad laughing and smiling, rather than threatening to knock off the entirety of Berk like earlier. Clearly, this was just what he needed.

“Look at the two of us—Two Viking men on the hunt, scheming to catch a wild beast.” My dad spoke with such determination and vigor; I knew he was getting closer to back to normal.

“See? You’re cheering up already, right?” Unfortunately, his smile quickly jumped from his face, leaving his usual, stone scowl.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, son.”

I became distracted by a group of Nadders emerging from the forest below, squawking in a way that sounded like an alert. That had to be it. A surge of adrenaline pushed through me as I became overwhelmed with the thought of finally getting to see this Rumblehorn.

“There!” my dad and I shouted at the same time. Unfortunately, when we landed, the Rumblehorn was nowhere to be seen.

“You see what I mean? Every time, we just miss it.”

“Well, we didn’t see it fly away, so it has to be on foot,” my dad reasoned. “But which way?” As I searched the surrounding area, I noticed a group of trees and bushes that were broken and bent, leaning away from each other. It almost looked like a path…

“Over here. Check the direction of the trees he took down.” My dad approached me and set a hand on my shoulder.

“After you, son.” I nodded, and began to walk along the trail of broken vegetation. Eventually, Rumblehorn tracks began to appear in the soft dirt, leading the way deeper into the woods. The sun had begun to set, making it a little harder to see the prints. The only thing that helped keep them visible was the fact that some of them were deep, clearly just laid.

“These footprints are fresh,” I pointed out to my dad. “We should be right on top of it.”

“It’s like the beast can sense us coming, and then it changes direction. A truly worthy adversary.”

We continued to follow the tracks as the sky turned pink, climbing over the logs that the Rumblehorn had knocked over. At this point, it felt like we’d never catch up to this thing, but I couldn’t just give up now.

“We have to be getting close,” I sighed.

“Ah, I don’t think so. We’ve been here before.” I quickly darted my head around, realizing we had, in fact, circled back at some point. I’d been so busy staring at the tracks, it was impossible to tell we’d seen this place before. “Look at the broken branches on this side of the trail. The beast has doubled back on us.” I caught on to what my dad was implying, and honestly, given how smart this dragon was, it wasn’t that far-fetched.

“Wait, you think it knows we’re hunting it?”

“No, I think it’s hunting us.” That was _much_ worse than what I’d initially thought.

“Oh, that’s good! No, I prefer it much more the other way around,” I sighed, mordacious. My dad wandered away from me, approaching one of the logs and leaning down to pick up a branch. “What are you thinking, Dad?” I jumped slightly as my dad snapped one of the branches in half.

“I might have an idea on how we’re going to catch this beast.” My dad slapping the branch against his hand made me a little nervous, but at this rate, I was nearly desperate to catch this dragon. “I’ll need the rope you’re carrying, and I need you and Toothless to be ready with the net.” I continued to eye my dad suspiciously as I removed the rope from the hook on Toothless’ saddle and passed it to my dad. “Make sure you two are hidden, and keep a close eye out.” I got back up onto Toothless, but before I took off, I turned back to look at my dad again.

“Be careful, Dad.”

Toothless and I crouched down among a set of bushes, lying in wait. My dad began to slap the branch against the ground, shouting and singing boisterously in an attempt to taunt the Rumblehorn out of hiding.

_“Well, I’ve got my club and I’ve got my rope and I smell like a yak ‘cause I don’t use soap. I’m a Viking through and through!”_ I swear, in my life, I’d never heard any two Vikings use the same set of lyrics when it came to that chant.

A low growl snapped my gaze up. From the bushes emerged a dragon, easily ten times bigger than Toothless. Rather than smaller scales, it had large plates that looked as though they were made of metal. The red and green would have made it difficult for it to blend in, meaning it must just be extremely stealthy, despite its size. Though its wings were small, the large horns on the top of its head meant that it could easily defend itself on the ground.

Despite the fact it had been terrorizing our base, I had to admit, this was quite an impressive dragon.

“Well, you’re magnificent!” my dad marveled. “And you’ve got a lot to say, don’t you?” In response, the Rumblehorn let out a loud, angry roar. “Now, let’s see if you can back it up!”

I took that as our signal. I pat Toothless on the side, making him shoot up into the air. We soared overhead as the Rumblehorn and my dad charged at each other, trying to keep as quiet as possible. Unfortunately, we weren’t stealthy enough to outwit the dragon, and when I threw the net down, it quickly cut to the right, completely evading capture.

“Dad! Get out of there!” I shouted, watching helplessly as my dad continued to sprint at the Rumblehorn.

“Not a chance!”

My dad proceeded to swing the rope he was holding and threw it right at the Rumblehorn, snaring one of its horns. When he yanked on it, he went flying back, over the head of the dragon, before the force of my dad’s weight caused the thing to topple. He’d managed to subdue it momentarily, but seeing as how the Rumblehorn’s eyes flew open just a second later, something told me he wouldn’t stay down for long.

“Dad, let go of the rope!” Before my dad got the chance, the Rumblehorn jumped to its feet and took off into the skies, dragging my dad right along with him. “Dad, don’t let go of the rope!” They disappeared up into the cloud cover, preventing me from seeing what was happening. “Toothless, come on.”

Toothless flew straight up, furiously flapping his wings in an attempt to get up there before something bad happened. Thankfully, we caught up with them just in time to catch my dad as he was falling, before the Rumblehorn could hurt him. I watched as the dragon leveled out its flight pattern and turned around, almost seeming discouraged.

“We’d better get back to Dragon’s Edge for reinforcements.” I tried my best to keep my voice steady as my heart rate went back down.

“Agreed.”

The sun had completely set when we arrived back at Dragon’s Edge. Fishlegs was hard at work repairing the base with the help of the twins, Astrid and Snotlout. Reign, meanwhile, was pacing back and forth, occasionally pulling on some of her curls—a clear sign she was worried.

“Where’s Gobber?” my dad asked upon arrival. Before anyone got the chance to answer, a group of boars came running by, snorting and squealing in terror, as Gobber, who had now painted his face blue and green, chased after them.

This was definitely one of the weirder days on the Edge.

“Okay, Gobber accounted for.” I made my way over to Reign, who stopped in her tracks and stared at me with wide eyes that carried a mixture of relief and anger. Almost immediately, she jumped up a little and wrapped her arms around me, as though needing to confirm I was really here. I gladly pulled her into a tight embrace, happy to see her.

“Hiccup, did you find the Rumblehorn?” she asked, her eyes frantically searching my face.

“More like he found us,” I grumbled. Behind me, my father laughed.

“Gave us a good run, that one.”

“We’re going to resupply, and then we all need to go look for it,” I stated firmly, addressing the whole group.

“Eh, I bet I can find him, like, right now,” Tuffnut shrugged.

“Oh, really?” Snotlout challenged, scoffing and crossing his arms.

“Oh, yeah.”

“How’s that?”

“Wait for it.” Tuffnut slowly pointed to a spot in the sky above our heads, a somewhat devious smile on his face. “Bing!”

Quickly, Reign and I whipped around, dread settling in my stomach as my eyes met with the silhouette of the Rumblehorn against the moon, flying straight for us.

“What the—ah!” Reign growled.

“Hey, everybody! On your dragons!” I ordered. “We need to draw him away from Dragon’s Edge. It tracked us all the way here.” I ran over to Toothless and jumped up onto him as Reign whistled for Shriek and hovered near me, waiting for us to take off.

“Impressive…” My dad stared up at the Rumblehorn, as though mystified by its mere existence.

“Dad, let’s catch him first. Then we can admire him.”

We hadn’t gotten far off the ground, when the Night Terrors suddenly flew out in front of us, seeming to be panicked as they fled from something.

“Where are all the Night Terrors going?” Right after that, the Rumblehorn blew right past us, going the same way as the Night Terrors.

“And why isn’t the Rumblehorn following us?” I followed the assumed path of the Rumblehorn, trying to figure out what exactly it was doing, when I noticed Gobber was still out in the open and completely unaware of what was going on.

“Because it’s following him.” As the Rumblehorn picked up speed, I realized I needed a different way to stop him from reaching Gobber because there was no way Toothless would be able to catch up at this point; we were too far behind. “Let’s get his attention, bud.”

Toothless fired a plasma blast right in front of the Rumblehorn, but the large dragon just swerved out of the way and landed on Dragon’s Edge. Reign and Astrid caught up to us just as he roared and charged toward Gobber, who still remained completely unaware of what was coming for him.

“Stormfly, spine shot!” Stormfly flicked her tail out and fired several spines into the ground along the Rumblehorn’s path, but he just trampled over them as though they didn’t even exist.

“Shriek, sonic boom!” All of us clapped our hands over our ears as Shriek screamed. The Rumblehorn shook its head as it ran, clearly disturbed by the noise, but it did nothing to deter his progress. The twins and Snotlout went next, igniting the grass in front of him and forming a large wall of fire, but his thick skin completely protected him from any burns or pain.

“For as powerful as that dragon is, he doesn’t seem to have a real thirst for blood,” my dad observed. I _did_ find it strange that the Rumblehorn had been attacked by various dragons and riders, yet it never once stopped to fight back. Still, maybe he was just the kind of dragon that picked a target and stuck to it.

“Not yet, but it’s still going after Gobber.” Unfortunately, with how close the dragon was to Gobber, I wasn’t left with much of a choice. “I hate to do this, but it’s the Rumblehorn or Gobber.” I tried my best to ignore the heaviness in my chest as I leaned forward, attempting to get the best view of the Rumblehorn. “We may only get one shot at this, bud. Let’s make it count!”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I heard my dad mutter from behind me. “Unless—Hiccup, wait!” My dad suddenly grabbed onto my shoulders, causing Toothless’ head to move up and the plasma blast to completely miss.

“Dad, what are you doing?” I demanded, frustrated that he’d set us back. Rather than answering, my dad directed my attention back to the scene below. In a shocking turn of events, once the Rumblehorn was close to Gobber, it just roared in his face, before completely relenting to the affection Gobber began to offer it.

“If that dragon wanted to hurt people, he’d have done it by now. Something else is going on here.” Now that I was seeing it, he had a point. 

“Like what?”

“Only one way to find out. Put me down next to him.” Reign followed as we landed next to Gobber and the Rumblehorn, the former of which turned to us with a big, goofy smile as my dad slid off Toothless’ back.

“Stoick!” Gobber greeted enthusiastically. “You remember Pepe?” Reign and I glanced at each other, confused and a little disturbed. “Hiccup, have you met Pepe?”

Who exactly was Pepe?

Not that finding that out was the most important bit of information at this exact moment.

“Oh, Gods,” I muttered, shaking my head.

“Well, at least he knows who you are,” Reign whispered, shrugging her shoulders.

When my dad approached the Rumblehorn, it roared right in his face, just like it had with everyone else, but rather than charging or flying away like I expected, it turned its head toward the horizon behind it.

“I think this dragon is trying to tell us something,” my dad concluded. The Rumblehorn suddenly slammed its head against the ground, causing Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang, and Barf and Belch’s pupils to turn to slits just before they started flying upwards and in a circular formation. Something was spooking our dragons... which meant my dad was onto something.

“I think you’re right.” In another strange move, the Rumblehorn nudged my dad and tossed him up onto his back, almost immediately accepting him as his rider. 

“Whoa, big fella. Hold on there.” The two of them turned around and started to fly away, leaving Toothless and Shriek to follow in hopes of getting some answers. The others’ dragons broke from their circular pattern and caught up with the Rumblehorn, keeping us all in formation. “Son, out there!” My dad pointed to the same horizon the Rumblehorn had been staring at. At first, I couldn’t tell what seemed off, until I noticed the shimmering of the water was suddenly _much_ higher up than it normally was.

“The sea level—is it rising?”

Reign and Shriek sped up, circling around and soaring under the crest of the large wave, attempting to confirm whether or not our eyes were deceiving us. The rest of us turned as the Rumblehorn headed back to the nearest shore, waiting for the news to return to us. Reign’s hair hung limp and wet against her head when she returned, her green eyes wide with alarm.

“There’s a giant wave headed for us.” she announced, gesturing her arm out to sea. “The Rumblehorn knew it and was trying to get us to leave.” That revelation helped all the missing pieces become clear.

Of course! It made perfect sense.

“He was trying to save us!” I exclaimed, finally fitting everything together. “That explains why he was chasing Gobber.”

“I’m not buying it,” Tuff dismissed, shaking his head. “Okay, guys, real quick—how long does it take to learn to swim?”

“No one has to swim,” Reign groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “We just need to block the wave from hitting the camp.”

“Isn’t it a little late for that, Reign?” She didn’t get the chance to answer before Astrid spoke up.

“No! Gobber’s rock wall—that’s big enough to stop the wave. We just need to reinforce it.” I nodded at her.

“Let’s get to work, gang.”

Everyone helped out in gathering up as many boulders as possible, while Toothless and I focused on laying them down on the wall. There were no visible holes or cracks at this point, but it still wasn’t quite tall enough to completely cover the buildings on the Edge. Fishlegs flew around us, keeping watch to make sure we could do this before it was too late.

“The wave’s coming!” he warned. “Hurry!” The closer the water got to us, the more violently the ground began to shake. “The wall’s not going to be high enough to stop that wave!”

“And it’s cracking!” I looked down as water rushed through newly-formed holes in the rock wall, likely eroded away by the force of the water pushing against it.

“You handle the cracks, son! I’ve got an idea!” My dad and the Rumblehorn completely turned around, heading for one of the sea stacks close by.

“You heard the man!”

Meatlug and Stormfly focused on clogging up the individual cracks, while Barf and Belch and Hookfang tossed rocks to Toothless and Shriek, who laid them down on the top of the wall. Just as the next set was laid down, I felt Reign reach over and squeeze my hand tight, and when I looked up, the wave was so close, I could feel the sea spray spitting at my face. Involuntarily, I gasped, unsure of what to do from here.

Thankfully, at that moment, Reign looked away and yanked on my hand, forcing Toothless and I to fall down behind the wall with her. The sea stack I’d seen my dad and the Rumblehorn going toward collapsed down on top of the wall, tall and strong enough to push the wave back into the sea, saving us from going under.

I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled Reign against my side as the realization fully hit me that we were finally safe.

Reign, Fishlegs, and I watched as the dragons started moving more rocks onto the top of the wall. After what happened last night, we all decided it would be best to build a permanent wall near the water, just to make sure we’d be safe if this ever happened again.

“I can’t believe it, guys,” Fishlegs marveled. “If the Rumblehorn hadn’t warned us, we would have been wiped out.”

“Yeah, I’d… rather not think about that part, Fishlegs.” I smiled down at Reign and held onto her waist as she leaned her head against my shoulder.

My dad and the Rumblehorn were taking a short break, turning in loops and diving up and down just off the coast of Dragon’s Edge.

“Look at that guy. He’s amazing.”

“Yes!” my dad cheered, hovering just above us. “You can say that again, Fishlegs.”

“You know, guys, this is a whole new class of dragon. We need a name.” I thought about it for a moment, trying to come up with a few possibilities, but only one thing stuck out to me.

“Well, it tracked us down. How about Tracker Class?” I suggested.

“Tracker Class?” Snotlout laughed. “Yeah, right! That sounds like something I would come up with.” I knew he was trying to insult the name, but honestly, I was too sold on it.

“Perfect.”

“Tracker Class it is.”

“What, you like it?” Snotlout threw his arms up in frustration. “Aw, come on!”

“Hiccup?” I turned my attention away from Snotlout as my father landed beside us. “Gobber and I are going to head back to Berk. We have a long ride back, after all.” I nodded, then Reign and I made our way down to the docks. Gobber had completely come to and was already waiting on the boat he’d sailed over on.

“Gobber, I sure am glad you’re back to normal.” Honestly, I secretly hoped his little episode would be wiped from my memory someday soon. But he didn’t need to know that.

“Yeah, not sure what all went on, but I’m sore in places I didn’t know I had,” he complained as he cracked his neck, attempting to let up some of the tension. Still slightly horrified, I turned away from him and prepared to bid my dad goodbye.

“Well, son, I’m glad I let you and Reign insist I come here,” he admitted, petting the Rumblehorn’s side. The look on my dad’s face cause a pang of sadness to strike my heart, allowing me to be honest with him.

“You know, Dad, when I first came back to Berk, I thought you might be missing me. But it was Thornado all along.”

“Aw, I do miss that magnificent beast. We had some connection, he and I.”

“Oh, I get it.” Smiling, I walked over to Toothless and scratched under his chin, causing him to purr happily and nuzzle me. “No, I can’t imagine what it would be like without Toothless.” I couldn’t even picture a world without dragons.

“Well, Thornado will never be replaced, but this guy… we’re a lot alike, he and I.” My dad grabbed onto one of the dragon’s horns and used it to boost himself up onto his back. “We’re both protectors, we’re both leaders.”

“And you’re both hard-headed,” Gobber teased.

“Hard-headed, you say. Skull-crushing’s more like it.” I saw that spark of an idea light up in my dad’s eyes. “Wait, that’s what we’ll call you. Skullcrusher.”

Skullcrusher roared triumphantly, seemingly accepting his new name, then my dad waved and started to turn away, ready to head back toward Berk. Thinking he was leaving, Reign and I started to head back up toward Dragon’s Edge, but my dad’s voice stopped us in our tracks.

“And by the way, son?” I looked back at him. “I do miss you. A lot, in fact.”

With heartstrings sufficiently tugged, my dad and Skullcrusher took off, catching up with Gobber’s boat and slowing down so neither would have to journey alone. Meanwhile, Toothless chortled and bounded up to me, nudging and licking my face in a playful show of affection before dashing away, back toward where the others were sitting and chatting.

“All right, guys, we have a lot of work to do. So let’s get to it.”


	10. Quake, Rattle, and Roll (Reign)

I rocked back and forth on my heels, impatient for Hiccup and Toothless to finish their latest defense system for the Edge. Recently, that feeling something big was about to happen grew stronger and stronger in my gut, so just to be safe, all of us were taking precautions to prepare for an attack from my brother. I had already finished making our armory more easily accessible, in the event we needed to grab weapons fast, so I offered to help Hiccup make the proper adjustments to the large spyglass he was setting up. It was mostly ready, the clarity just needed to be adjusted a bit so we could see as far as possible.

“All right. I think one more plasma blast should do the trick, bud.” Thinking fast, I jumped back just as Toothless shot a purple blast at the glass, nearly avoiding the cloud of smoke it created. Hiccup, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky, and after the shot was fired, I could hear him coughing.

“Whoo!” Once the black smoke and golden embers completely cleared, I stepped forward and leaned down, peering through the spyglass.

“Nice,” I gasped. “I can see straight to the horizon.” 

“That should make it a little harder for anyone to sneak up on us.” Though Hiccup couldn’t see it, I smiled, feeling far more reassured than last night, when I started freaking out about all of this in the first place. “I wonder how the twins’ lookout tower is coming along.” I stood up straight and shook my head, unable to picture them making any actual progress.

“I can only imagine.”

Hiccup and I shared a brief laugh as he made his way closer and placed a hand on my shoulder, looking at me with concerned eyes.

“Does this help at all?” he asked. “Be honest.” I sighed, leaning my head against his chest and allowing his steady heartbeat to ease me into full contentment.

“It certainly makes this place safer, if that’s what you mean.” I paused for a moment, unsure whether I should share the next thing that came to mind. But, Hiccup would know if I was holding something back, and then he’d just start worrying more, and that was the last thing I wanted. “Look, I already feel bad that my panic resulted in everyone having to do work—“

“Don’t worry about it, Reign,” he shrugged, strangely casual about all this. “We were going to have to set all this up eventually. It’s better we do it now, rather than after it’s too late, and we’d have to rebuild the entire outpost as well.” Still, I felt no better about any of this.

“Are you sure? I still feel like—“ This time, Hiccup cut off my train of thought by kissing my nose, causing my cheeks to flare bright red and my brain to become all flustered.

“I promise you, it’s fine. And I will continue to tell you that until you believe it.”

Before I could respond, two extra pairs of footsteps turned me around. Astrid and Snotlout rounded the corner, their faces glistening with sweat.

“Hey, guys, you have to check this thing out.” I rested a hand on the large spyglass. “You can see forever.” Astrid stepped forward first, leaning down and closing one eye. She looked around for a bit, when her brow furrowed, and she glanced up at us.

“The view is tilted to the left slightly,” she informed us. “You can still see perfectly fine, but it’s just kind of off-putting.”

Without a single protest, Hiccup knelt down and started to hammer the right leg that propped up the lens, attempting to shorten it without having to take the whole thing down and cut the leg. He hadn’t been hammering for very long when the twins landed on the platform, donning matching smirks on their faces.

“Hiccup, drop everything you’re doing and bring your face.” Though Hiccup stopped working, he didn’t seem eager to comply with whatever the twins were asking of him. The four of us stared at them with confused expressions.

“Prepare to be rubbed.” Yet another example of the fact the twins don’t think before speaking. 

“Ruff, I’m not sure you realize how bad that sounds,” I muttered, shaking my head. The pairs’ shoulders slumped, clearly flustered.

“Just follow us.”

Still wary, we all complied and climbed onto our dragons, following the twins out to where they were supposed to be working. They made sure to land before the rest of us and ran to stand in front of the cliff, blocking our view of something.

“Dragon Riders, you asked for it. We built it. Presenting you…” Ruff made a trumpeting noise when her brother gestured to her. “…with your new rock lookout tower.”

Barf and Belch flew out of the way, clearly meant to unveil this supposed rock tower, but there was nothing anywhere nearby. Ruff and Tuff gawked at the empty space on the cliff they had been covering, just as confused as the rest of us.

“You two never disappoint, do you?” Snotlout laughed.

“What? No! Wait! It was here a minute ago!” Tuffnut insisted. His brows furrowed, and he turned to his sister, pointing an accusatory finger at her. “What did you do with it?” 

“I didn’t do anything with it!”

“You lying she-beast!” her brother shot back, balling his hands into fists. “You were jealous of my rock tower.”

“Your rock tower?”

I rolled my eyes as Ruffnut jumped out, tackling her brother to the ground and proceeding to beat him. At first, I almost considered turning around and heading back to the spyglass, until they each grabbed onto a mace and started to charge at each other. Hiccup quickly lunged forward and stepped between the two of them, sticking his arms out to keep one from getting too close to the other.

“Okay, okay, okay. Let’s everyone step away from the sharp objects.” Reluctantly, the twins obeyed. “Okay, look, maybe this job was just too tough for you to do alone. I can put Astrid on the project with you.”

“Hiccup, let’s not be hasty,” Astrid snapped.

“But we did build it. Honest.” The twins were really going with this.

“No one was more surprised about it than we were.”

I was about to tell the twins to just get to work and stop distracting the rest of us, when Fishlegs’ panicked voice shot down, all the way from the clubhouse.

“Hiccup! Reign, come quickly!” he called, his voice cracking slightly. Hiccup turned on his heel and met eyes with me, his eyebrows raised quite a bit in alarm.

“That does not sound good,” Astrid remarked, staring up at the place Fishlegs had been working for the last couple of hours.

“We’d better go make sure he’s okay.” Hiccup nodded, and the two of us jumped on our dragons, soaring up to the clubhouse. We dismounted just as quickly as we had gotten onto our dragons, then ran into the clubhouse, slightly frantic. “Fishlegs?”

My eyes flickered down just in time to spot a large puddle of Gronckle lava right in our path. I reached over and grabbed onto Hiccup’s arm, stopping him from stepping right into the scalding puddle and pointing it out to him. As I looked up, I noticed several more littering the wooden ground, each one a different color.

What in the name of Thor happened in here?

“Careful where you step,” Fishlegs warned, a little too late, as he and Meatlug landed in front of us.

“Fishlegs, what’s wrong?” I asked, confused by the content look on his face.

“Wrong?” he chuckled. “Nothing’s wrong. Except I may have just made the greatest discovery in the history of Berkian civilization!”

Fishlegs threw his arms up toward the ceiling in a grand gesture, signaling us to look up. Symbols and images from the Dragon Eye illuminated the dark shadows formed by corners, but they weren’t the same, familiar Gronckle tidbits we’d seen a thousand times; these were brand new.

“Oh, Fishlegs, is that…?” Hiccup trailed off, as though unable to speak what he was thinking of.

“Mm-hmm, this is a Gronckle.” He and Meatlug flew up toward the images and pointed to the leftmost one. “And here is a boulder surrounded by water, and the dual mountain peaks. Ooh! Dark Deep!”

“The ancestral home of all the Gronckles,” Hiccup finished, neither of us able to draw our eyes from the images.

“It’s real, guys. And we finally found it!”

“Yeah. What’s so great about this?” I turned my head as Snotlout entered the clubhouse, a scowl etched deep onto his face as he stared at Fishlegs up in the air.

“Do I really have to explain?” Fishlegs’ excitement immediately disappeared.

“Your boring discovery? Yes.” Fishlegs let out a dramatic sigh before launching into his explanation. 

“Dark Deep is an island that, up until now, we were never sure existed. It’s not in the _Book of Dragons_ anywhere. However, in Bork’s papers, there is a mention of it, but only briefly and in context to a completely different species. If we were able to find Dark Deep, it could unlock so many secrets, not only of Gronckles, but the entire Boulder Class of dragons. Do you understand how amazing this is?”

The way Fishlegs got uncontrollably excited when it came to dragon discoveries never failed to make me smile. He was so passionate about the history and classifications of dragons, to the point where this sort of research became not only his life’s work, but one of his pastimes.

I glanced back to see if Snotlout finally got it, but in line with his usual behavior, he had completely zoned out, looking as though he’d just heard the world’s most boring lecture. He snapped back to once he realized all of us were looking at him, but he hadn’t changed his tune at all.

“Check that! I absolutely don’t care.” Satisfied with his taunting, Snotlout turned around and headed out of the clubhouse, allowing us to focus back on Fishlegs and Dark Deep.

“I’ve taken the liberty of charting a course based on these encryptions. This island is farther than we’ve ever flown before.” Meatlug’s wings began to flap more vigorously as a big, giddy grin spread on her face, causing me to laugh. “I’ve never seen Meatlug so excited. Just think, I will be the first Berkian to ever set foot on Dark Deep. What an honor.”

As much as I loved seeing Fishlegs this happy, the thought of him going all on his own made me slightly nervous. Sure, he was capable of defending himself, but only to a certain level. Not to mention, the possibility of new dragons that could potentially be hostile meant someone would have to be quick on their feet, and couldn’t afford to hesitate for even a second. Fishlegs needed someone to go with him, just for protection’s sake, and honestly, I didn’t mind being that person at all.

“I get it, Fishlegs. But Shriek and I should go with you, in case you need help.” Surprisingly, Fishlegs relented immediately.

“Okay, you can come, too. But I’m the first one to step foot. You can be second.”

“Okay, I promise,” I chuckled.

“Well, then welcome aboard, Reign. Come on, Meatlug, we need to go pack!”

Fishlegs and Meatlug zoomed out overhead, nearly knocking Hiccup and my heads off. However, I couldn’t blame them—the excitement often overtook Fishlegs. I smiled in the direction they’d flown off in for a moment, until Hiccup came around to face me and took my hands in his. 

“Are you sure about this, Reign?” he asked worriedly. “I mean, I can come with you if you want, just to make sure—“ I chuckled and squeezed Hiccup’s hands a little.

“Hiccup, everything’s going to be fine. Fishlegs and I will go and come back in one piece. Besides, I could use a break from all the work I’ve been doing the past couple of days,” I admitted.

“I just… don’t want you to get hurt.” I scoffed and rolled my eyes at Hiccup.

“Oh, please. Who’s the one that always beats you when we do combat training?” Hiccup slowly turned red and began to stutter. “I’ll be just fine. You can help me pack, if it’ll make you feel better.”

I didn’t give him the chance to protest, instead opting to let go of his hands and head toward our hut to begin gathering up my things. It took him a couple minutes, but eventually, Hiccup followed me and began to help.

The next morning, we bade each other goodbye with a ‘be safe’ and the usual ‘I love you’s, then I met up with Fishlegs at the clubhouse and we took off for Dark Deep. The entire time, he was practically buzzing with excitement, cheering and singing the whole way there.

“ _Dark Deep! At last, I’ve found you. Dark Deep! The Gronckles surround you.”_ His cheeriness seeped over to me, causing a wide smile to overtake my face as I began to laugh joyfully.

“Fishlegs, I haven’t seen you this excited since Snoggletog morning when we were seven. Then again, I hadn’t been on Berk that long, so at the time, it freaked me out…” I shook my head, bringing things back to Fishlegs. “Regardless, it’s great to see you this happy.”

“I know. I couldn’t even finish third breakfast.” The fact he had time for two and a half breakfasts before we left this morning was kind of impressive. “I hope I don’t get too hungry.” He pumped his fist in the air. “Dark Deep, here we come.”

Grey clouds began to roll in as we closed in on Dark Deep. The ominous name certainly fit the look of the island; large rock formations towered over the craters in the land, casting jagged and strange shadows. In a way, it almost reminded me out Outcast Island, especially due to the fact everything was a cold, dead grey. Still, all of that would just make seeing the colorful Gronckles that much more exciting.

I took care to hang back, allowing Fishlegs and Meatlug to land first and have their moment before Shriek and I touched down.

“Whoo! Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah, Fishlegs!” He gasped the moment his cheering ended, eyes bouncing around rapidly. “I can’t believe I’m actually here.” Meatlug snarled and nudged his side, reminding him she was there, too. “Sorry, girl. _We’re_ here.”

As Fishlegs danced around and fed Meatlug various rocks, I noticed something strange. Despite the promise that this was the home of the Gronckles, there was a significant lack of any signs of life within the visible area. When Shriek and I finally landed, Fishlegs started to trail off on his song, struggling for the last few lyrics.

“I’ll work on that last part,” he mumbled, clearing his throat.

“Hey, I love the song. It’s just one thing. Where are the roaming Gronckles?” I gestured my arms out, showing off the barren land. “Could we have landed on the wrong—“

“No,” Fishlegs interjected. “That’s Gravel Lake and the dual peaks of Mount Grunt. Reign, this is Dark Deep.” Shriek growled lowly, scanning her eyes over the world in front of her before looking up at me, confused.

“I’m with you, girl,” I sighed.

Meatlug’s growl drew the three of us over to a chasm. Down below, there were three Gronckles, chowing down on rocks without a care in the world. At least the island wasn’t completely desolate…

“Look, Meatlug found some new friends. Told you there were Gronckles here.”

Despite Fishlegs’ enthusiasm, when Meatlug flew down to greet the wild dragons, they got lower to the ground and started growling at her, attempting to scare her off. Afraid, Meatlug began to whimper and slowly backed up, as though she was unsure what she did wrong. Fishlegs tried his best to climb down gracefully, but close to the bottom, he lost his grip and fell, causing me to jump and climb down after him.

“That’s strange behavior for a Gronckle,” I observed. “They’re usually pretty friendly.”

The sudden, violently trembling of the ground startled me. A few loose pebbles above us smacked onto the stone beneath our feet, shaken loose by the tremors. It only lasted for a moment, but I felt no more at ease once it stopped.

“That could be what’s doing it,” Fishlegs theorized. “No one likes an earthquake.” My heart began to pound a little faster as Shriek started growling at the shadows. Something was in there… “See?”

Shriek’s growls turned to roars as dust suddenly began to kick up from the shadows, and the ground began to shake again. I couldn’t quite make out what was causing this at first, until it got a little too close.

“Runaway boulder!” Fishlegs cried, rushing to the Gronckles in an attempt to get them to safety.

Meanwhile, Shriek and I rushed up closer in an attempt to stop the boulder in its tracks. Under normal circumstances, Shriek’s sonic boom could break up boulders, but when she fired at this one, it only picked up speed, remaining in once piece. Shriek stubbornly screamed a few more times before I removed my hands from my ears and pulled on her, forcing her to run away. We weren’t going to be fast enough, however, so I guided Shriek to one of the walls, pushing Fishlegs and the Gronckles out of the way in the process, and let the boulder roll by.

“That was close.” Fishlegs breathed a sigh of relief.

We relaxed preemptively. In a baffling and somewhat concerning feat of science, the boulder turned around and began to roll toward us again.

“Uh, Fishlegs? When was the last time you saw a boulder roll uphill?”

“Um, never?” he quivered.

“Yeah, me neither.” I wanted to fly away, but at the same time, I couldn’t stop staring at this boulder. There was something odd about the texture.

“How is that possible?”

“No time to find out!”

The Gronckles, Fishlegs, and I turned and started to fly back in the direction we came from, in a desperate attempt to get away from whatever that thing was. However, the creature was faster than us, and just a matter of seconds later, I could feel the dust and rocks it was kicking up hitting my back. My heart slammed against my chest, as though trying to escape this scenario without me, causing blood to rush through my arms and legs.

“We can’t avoid it!” Fishlegs shouted back to me. Shriek fired another boom at the creature, but once again, it did absolutely nothing. Our only hope, at this rate, was to follow the Gronckles as they dipped to the left, heading down a different path.

“Quick, down here.”

Our dragons turned with such force, Fishlegs and I went flying off, smacking onto the rocks. Strangely enough, the shield on my back made the pain worse, rather than breaking my fall. Still, we were alive, and that was what mattered at the moment.

Once the pain mostly subsided, I pushed myself onto my feet and tried to look for a way out. The three wild Gronckles had gravitated toward a hole in the rocks above us, but none of them could fit through. I couldn’t even fit through that hole, even without Shriek.

“It looks like we can’t fly out, girl.”

“It’s okay,” Fishlegs assured me as he checked Meatlug for injuries. “I think we lost it.”

“Then let’s move out.” I waved my hand toward the entrance we’d come in through, signaling for Fishlegs to follow. “Quietly.”

I peered around the corner, deeming it safe enough for all of us to start moving. I took care to keep my steps quiet. One of my hands subconsciously crawled to the silver pendant draped around my neck, rolling it between my fingers in an attempt to keep myself calm. No matter how old I got, the necklace Hiccup gave me always served as a source of comfort for me.

However, it didn’t do anything to keep me from jumping when Fishlegs’ stomach rumbled, tricking me, into thinking the large creature was coming back for us. I turned around and stared at him, unamused.

“What? That’s what happens when you don’t eat third breakfast.”

A much deeper and louder rumbling snapped my attention back in front of me, just in time to see the dust and rocks down the tunnel flying into the air. That thing had found us.

“Uh, Reign?” Fishlegs quivered.

“I see it, Fishlegs.”

This time, before it reached us, the creature popped out of its ball, revealing itself to be a _massive_ dragon. My jaw dropped as it slowly raised its head and glared at us with bright amber eyes. Its roar pierced through the caverns, forcing me to clap my hands over my ears to keep my eardrums from exploding. Rocks and boulders started to fall, and thankfully, I was able to reach for my shield and cover my head before anything hit me.

“Impressive! Definitely a boulder class.” I stared at Fishlegs in disbelief. “’Catastrophic Quaken’ as the name?”

“We should name it later and focus on not getting killed by it now!”

The Quaken paused its roaring for a moment, giving me the chance to hop up on Shriek’s back. She began to scream and roar, causing the Quaken to momentarily become confused, but nothing more. When the Quaken attempted to lunge at us, Shriek quickly jumped to the wall. We didn’t get to rest long, however, because the menacing dragon quickly found us and smashed its head into the spot we’d been perched, just a moment after Shriek flew back down.

“As long as its rolled up in that ball, we’re safe. Fishlegs, get those Gronckles in the air.”

Shriek screamed at the Quaken one last time, giving us a small window to get out of the tunnels. It started to follow us, but clearly, those tiny wings couldn’t take it very far because it quickly balled back up and slammed onto the ground of Dark Deep. Consequently, this created a large shockwave that nearly knocked me off my dragon.

“Okay, on second thought, maybe we’re not so safe after all. Fishlegs, Meatlug, retreat,” I ordered as Shriek picked him up and plopped him back onto his dragon.

“I thought you’d never ask,” he panted, still trying to get his bearings.

We circled over Dark Deep once, getting the three Gronckles to follow us, then rushed off as fast as we could, heading straight for Berk. I didn’t doubt Hiccup would be okay with taking a few more dragons in, but I wasn’t going to give him much of a choice in this. Their home had been invaded, and they needed our help.

When we reached Dragon’s Edge again, Fishlegs took the wild Gronckles toward the dragon training arena, while I went off to look for Hiccup. I found him making last minute adjustments to the spyglass, seemingly in a good mood. The moment I landed on the platform, he took large strides over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I smiled and relaxed savoring the moment before undoubted chaos would ensue. 

“How what the trip?” he asked as I brushed some of his hair from his face.

“Uh… not as exciting as you would think.” He raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to explain. “Some large, territorial Boulder Class moved into Dark Deep at some point and took over. As far as we could see, there were only three Gronckles left. They couldn’t keep living there, so… Fishlegs and I kind of brought them back.” Thankfully, his smile didn’t fade, and after taking a moment to process, he got up onto Toothless.

“Well, we should go make sure none of them are injured.” I let out a tiny sigh and led Hiccup down to the arena. The others had already gathered there, all of them looking exhausted.

It seemed like Snotlout had been waiting for me to land because the moment I did, he turned to me and started shouting.

“Really? More Gronckles?”

“Just a few stray Gronckles,” I observed calmly. “We should be able to handle that.”

“Just a few strays, she says,” Ruffnut scoffed, her shoulders slumped to the point where she was nearly doubled over.

“Yeah, you should really have a look at this.” Astrid grabbed onto my arm and dragged me along with her, leading me to the other side of the arena. A much larger group of Gronckles had taken up residence there, either eating loose rocks nearby or butting heads with another Gronckle.

“So this is where all the Gronckles from Dark Deep went.”

“Can you believe they flew all this way?” Though Fishlegs was excited, I honestly was starting to get concerned about overpopulation. “Gronckles may be slow, but they are tenacious.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Tuffnut’s eyes landed on a Gronckle eating a boulder right across from him. “Don’t put that rock in your mouth,” he scolded. “You have no idea where it’s been, mister.” Frightened, the Gronckle started to run away from Tuffnut, guarding the precious rock he’d obtained.

“These guys are out of control. We have to get them to their island.” Though Astrid’s heart was in the right place, that was easier said than done.

“There might be a problem with that.”

“They’ve been chased from their homeland by a giant Boulder Class dragon. The Catastrophic Quaken, to be exact.”

“Quaken, shmaken.” Snotlout stepped in and pushed himself between Hiccup and Fishlegs, causing the former to knock into me. “You let one lousy dragon take over Meatlug’s entire island?”

“It’s not that simple,” Fishlegs attempted to explain.

“Sure it is. Quaken, one. Meatlug—“ Snotlout made a loud, jarring sound. “—pathetic.”

“Let’s drop it,” I cut in. “We have a bigger problem here. We have to wrangle all the wild Gronckles.” I looked to Hiccup, silently asking him to pick someone to do it.

“Well, since I unfairly doubted the twins, I put them in charge.” I furrowed my brows. Clearly, I had missed something important while Fishlegs and I were gone.

“Huh?”

“Awesome. It’ll be nice to get to know these guys better.” Tuffnut returned to us with the remains of the rock that one Gronckle had snatched up, and honestly, I was pretty impressed he managed to get any of it back at all. “We got off to a little bit of a rocky start on our relationship.” While he burst into laughter at the use of his pun, the rest of us just shook our heads and walked away. “You see what I did there? I’ll explain it later. My humor can be quite complex.” I felt Hiccup wrap an arm around my waist, bringing my attention up to him.

“You want to get some dinner?” My stomach responded for me, growling loudly. My eyes widened in horror, flashing Hiccup a sheepish smile, but only a moment later, both of us dissolved into laughter.

“Something tells me I should say yes,” I joked.

The steady rhythm of Hiccup pounding on iron strangely helped me focus on my drawing. During dinner last night, I’d suggested adding Dark Deep to the _Book of Dragons_ , and Hiccup seemed more than happy to oblige. I promised I’d work on the sketches to the best of my ability, but that meant I really had to concentrate on each line and shadow. However, I couldn’t resist reaching over every now and then to pet Shriek as she took a nap in the sun.

“Hey, what are you up to?” I smiled as I looked up from my notebook, meeting eyes with Fishlegs as he approached Hiccup.

“Strengthening the iron in this tail piece. Toothless keeps bending it when he makes turns.” Toothless purred curiously, sniffing the metal piece Hiccup was holding. “Don’t you, bud?”

“And I’m working on the sketches of Dark Deep for the _Book of Dragons_.” I turned the notebook around and held it up, showing off what I’d done so far before I hopped down and stood next to Hiccup. “So, what’s up?”

“I was just wondering what the plan was.” My cheeriness deflated slightly. I was worried Fishlegs would eventually come ask about this.

“The plan?” Hiccup asked slowly, trying to get on the same page.

“For Dark Deep? The Quaken? How are we gonna get rid of it?” Hiccup and I glanced at each other nervously, seemingly daring the other to deliver the news. The silence had gone on too long at this point, so I sighed and sucked it up.

“About that, Fishlegs… Hiccup and I were talking about this last night, and we’re not so sure we should… get rid of it, that is.”

“What?” The devastation on Fishlegs’ face broke my heart. Thankfully, Hiccup took over.

“Well, I’m not sure we have the right to interfere. I mean, that’s what happens in nature, all the time. The Quaken has taken over the island for now. And one day, maybe a bigger dragon will come along and the Quaken will be chased off. You know, who’s to say?” Something about the look in Fishlegs’ eyes made my stomach churn. It seemed almost… angry.

“Fine.”

I watched Fishlegs leave, and the moment he was out of earshot, I leaned against Hiccup’s side and let out a loud sigh.

“I feel terrible,” he muttered, beginning to run a hand through my hair in an attempt at comfort.

“I know. I do, too. I mean, that dragon was _huge_ , and those poor Gronckles were absolutely petrified.” I paused. “Are you _sure_ we can’t do something?” Hiccup shook his head.

“Not without putting our dragons in harm’s way.”

It wasn’t the answer I’d been hoping for, but I knew it was really the only safe option. Whether we liked it or not, it’s what we’d have to go along with. I stayed by Hiccup’s side for another moment, but eventually, I had to return to the drawings, and he went back to making adjustments to Toothless’ tail fin. I’d nearly finished the drawing, when Hiccup called out for my attention.

“Reign?” I hummed in acknowledgement. “I have to go get more kindling for the forge. Do you want to come with me?” At first, I considered staying here and finishing the drawing, but honestly, I needed to get up and stretch.

“Sure.”

He slung the bag over one shoulder, and took my hand with his free one, holding it tight as we walked down to the forest. Once we got there, I heard a pair of voices, and my curiosity overtook me, guiding the two of us in that direction. I was so determined to find the sources, that I nearly missed the fact they were Fishlegs and Snotlout… just hanging out? That didn’t seem right.

It’s not that they hated each other, but they thought so differently, I rarely saw them get along. Not to mention, there was something suspicious about the way they waved at Hiccup and I. They definitely were plotting something, but I didn’t want to approach them just yet. Instead, we passed by a couple more times, before finally, it seemed like we could catch them red-handed. I yanked on Hiccup’s hand, dragging him down into the bushes with me.

“Well, I didn’t think it was possible… what with you being you and all, but you’re actually ready.” Snotlout’s voice sounded nasally, as though he had something shoved up his nose.

“Do you really think so?”

That was enough for me. Just as Snotlout raised his finger in the air and opened his mouth, likely to deliver some sort of insult, Hiccup and I emerged from the bushes, making our way over to the pair.

“I knew you were up to something,” I interrupted, crossing my arms in an attempt to demonstrate my disappointment. “Fishlegs, have you been training to take on the Quaken?” Snotlout pushed Fishlegs back, sneering at me.

“You don’t have to answer that,” Snotlout snapped.

“Oh, yes, he does,” Hiccup shot back. “Fishlegs?” He hesitated for a moment, as though trying to hold it in, but the truth came rushing out anyways.

“Fine. Yes, we have,” he admitted. “We can’t just sit by and let the Quaken take over Dark Deep. The Gronckles can’t stay here. This isn’t their home, guys. You wanna talk about nature, what’s right and who belongs where? The Dragon Eye says Gronckles should live on Dark Deep and we’re going to make sure they do. We’re ready for it this time. Meatlug, battle ready.” Meatlug crouched down and growled, trying her best to appear fearsome, but in one shot, Toothless managed to subdue her. Fishlegs’ words really set in for me, and I raised my eyebrows at him.

“’Battle ready?’ Whoa, Fishlegs, this isn’t you, it’s him.” I thrust my arm in Snotlout’s direction.

“I know. Great, right?”

“No, not great!” I protested. “You can’t listen to Snotlout. That has disaster written all over it.”

“I resent that! When has anything I’ve ever done ended in disaster? Right, Hookfang?” Snotlout looked over to see his dragon flying away. “Hookfang? Hookfang!”

“You’re all brain and heart, Fishlegs. Not brawn and bragging.”

“But, Reign—“ I stuck my hand up, silencing him.

“They should be back on their own island and we’ll find a way to make that happen, but fighting the Quaken, no, that’s not it.” Slowly, Fishlegs seemed to come to his senses, offering the smallest nod to assure me he understood. Though I still felt bad, Hiccup and I had to get back so he could finish the piece of the tail fin.

But, when we reached the clubhouse, I just pulled Hiccup against me and held him, unwilling to let go for a while. Hiccup’s brain and heart were what made me fall in love with him in the first place, and although it was different with Fishlegs, I knew those traits were what made it so easy for me to be friends with him. Since the beginning, before I knew Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs were always my closest friends. To think, even for a moment, that Fishlegs believed he needed to change the best things about him hurt in a different sort of way.

And though I reminded him of it as often as I got the chance, I hoped Hiccup knew that his wisdom and compassion were two of the things I loved the most about him, and that I never wanted that to change.

“We need to talk to Fishlegs,” I muttered into Hiccup’s chest. “We have to fix this.”

I expected some sort of protest from him; I expected a lengthy speech on how we needed to properly prepare before we made some sort of plan.

What I didn’t expect was for him to just say…

“I agree.”

After shaking off the initial shock, we got onto our dragons and started the search for Fishlegs. A good twenty minutes passed, and we weren’t able to find him, but upon realizing Snotlout was missing as well, it became obvious where they’d gone. With a slight drop of my shoulders, I led Hiccup towards Dark Deep.

“We need to find these muttonheads before they get themselves killed,” Hiccup groaned. Dark Deep was just peeking over the horizon, when I noticed a large dragon with a rider heading right for us.

“Look there!” I pointed to what was clearly Snotlout and Hookfang. “Muttonhead incoming!” He caught up to us quickly, frantic and panting.

“Snotlout, where’s Fishlegs?” Hiccup demanded.

“You know, that Quaken was a lot bigger than he said it was.”

“So you just left him?” I shouted, shaking my head. “Oh, my gods.”

Hiccup and I flew right over Snotlout’s head, making a straight shot for Dark Deep and arriving just in time to see Fishlegs fleeing from the Catastrophic Quaken.

“Fishlegs!” I shouted as Toothless fired a plasma blast at the Quaken, drawing its attention toward us instead.

Snotlout eventually caught up to us, and the three of us hovered in the air in front of the Quaken. At first, it really didn’t do anything, instead opting to just roar at us (likely in an attempt to get us to flee), but when we weren’t affected by the loud sounds, the Quaken rolled itself into a ball and slammed onto the ground, sending up that strong shockwave that nearly knocked everyone off their dragons. Hiccup and Toothless went tumbling toward the rocky ground, nearly meeting a painful demise before Hiccup managed to climb back on his dragon and open the tail fin. The Quaken had chased Fishlegs and Meatlug down into the tunnels, leering over them through the small crack in the ground before relenting and balling itself up, rolling around in an attempt to scare us off. Hiccup, Snotlout, and I circled the island, watching as Fishlegs emerged from the caves. The Quaken paused a few feet in front of the Viking, but when it started to roll toward him, he just closed his eyes and stood there.

“What is he doing?” I asked, watching in horror as he refused to move.

“Getting himself killed!” Snotlout did nothing to assuage my fears.

“Fishlegs, get out of there!” Hiccup shouted, trying to get his attention.

“No.” Fishlegs finally opened his eyes, but he only stood up taller. “We aren’t going anywhere, right, girl?”

I wanted to look away, but for one reason or another, I couldn’t peel my eyes away as the Quaken went barreling right for Fishlegs and Meatlug, launching itself up into the air. But before it could smash down on top of him, Meatlug let out a strange roar, causing the Quaken to miss them completely, instead stopping directly in front of the Gronckle. The pair stared each other down, roaring and growling. But, when Meatlug refused to back down, the Quaken gave up. Relief washed over me as she hovered in the air and nuzzled the Quaken.

“It’s working,” I cheered, placing a hand over my chest and letting out a deep breath.

“I thought everyone said that thing was tough.” I turned to see the twins leading the Gronckles in our direction. They must have been in on Fishlegs’ and Snotlout’s plan. “Doesn’t look so tough to me.”

The rest of the Gronckles flew down toward the Quaken, who led them off toward safety, while Hiccup and I circled around and landed, making our way to Fishlegs.

“Fishlegs, that was about the craziest and bravest, but mostly craziest, thing I have ever seen anyone do,” Hiccup marveled. I scoffed involuntarily, smirking up at Hiccup.

“If it were possible for you to see the crazy stunts you do on Toothless, you wouldn’t be saying that.” Though Hiccup tried his best to appear angry, his smile completely cut through it as he draped an arm around my shoulders.

“You were right, Reign. Fighting dirty isn’t me. That was me.”

“It sure was.” The Quaken used its tail to smash a large boulder, breaking it into smaller pieces so the Gronckles could eat it. “The Quaken was just being defensive. It was scared by itself. It wasn’t angry.”

“Fishlegs, that was awesome!” Snotlout was really trying to act like he hadn’t almost screwed everything up. “Just like I taught you. No need to thank me. Success is its own reward.”

“Oh, really, Snotlout? Tell me more.” Just as Snotlout opened his mouth, Fishlegs changed his tune. “Oh, that’s right. I just remembered I don’t care.” I couldn’t help but laugh as Fishlegs walked away.

“I taught him too well.”

The Gronckles and Quaken looked as though they were going to get along just fine, giving me enough confidence to leave this place with a sound mind. Nature did work out the way it meant to… just not the way we were thinking. But this way was much better.


	11. Have Dragon Will Travel, Pt. 1

I leaned down and clipped another bag onto the side of Toothless’ saddle, making sure it was secured for the trip back to Dragon’s Edge. A couple days ago, we all realized we’d need to go back to Berk every now and then to get more supplies, so that’s what we were doing. The bag I just put on was the one that mattered most to me, since it contained the drawings Reign had done over the years. Sure, they weren’t considered a necessity, but I could fit all of them into the small bag

“Hey, babe?” I looked up to see Reign smiling at me. “I left my sword over by you. Would you mind bringing it to me?” I glanced down toward my foot, wondering how I’d missed the glint of her weapon down there.

“Yeah. Here.” As she reached out to tuck the sword into its sheath, I leaned forward and kissed her temple, causing her to sigh happily. “Okay, now remember, gang, we’re only taking absolute necessities to Dragon’s Edge.”

“Guess we’re leaving you behind, Fishlegs,” Snotlout taunted, cackling. Fishlegs clutched the rocks he had gathered tighter to his chest for a moment, before getting right back to filling the baskets on Meatlug’s saddle.

“You’re better than that, Snotlout,” he scoffed. “Oh, wait, no you’re not.”

Once all of the rocks had been loaded into Meatlug’s saddle baskets, she tried her best to take a test flight, but found herself unable to get more than a few inches off the ground, due to the sheer weight of all the stones Fishlegs was attempting to take back.

“Come on, girl, you can do it!” Fishlegs encouraged. “Lift with your legs.”

“Fishlegs,” I sighed. Although I knew he preferred to feed Meatlug stones from Berk, he had to realize he couldn’t bring _all_ of the stones on Berk.

“What? Berk granite has a nicer finish. And trust me, you want a nicer finish.” My attention was drawn away from Fishlegs by the sound of metal striking metal and the twins’ voices.

“Not bad. That’s a two. Do it again.” I turned just in time to see Ruffnut bash her brother over the head with a mace, causing him to go cross-eyed for a moment. A part of me wanted to step in and stop them, but at the same time, this was just another day for them, and Tuff wouldn’t come out of this any worse for the wear than before. “Yeah, three. I still think we can do better.”

“Yes, we can!” Ruffnut wound up her strike and proceeded to throw her whole body in a circle before hitting Tuffnut, causing him to collapse onto the ground.

“Yep, that is a four. One, two, three, four.” Satisfied with her work, Ruff slung the mace into their baskets, already full with the exact same weapon.

“I’ll tag it and bag it.”

“Any of you four need anything, I’ll be right here,” Tuff slurred.

At least they had a two-headed dragon, so one of them could fly back to the Edge.

I felt an arm wrap around my waist, and when I looked down, I smiled at Reign and rested one of my hands over her own. It was just about time for us to get going, when my dad, Gobber, Bucket, and Mulch came marching over to us. The ‘I-could-kill-someone’ look on my father’s face wasn’t really something that shocked me, but the fact Gobber wore the exact same one caused a sense of dread to settle in my chest.

“Which one of the usual suspects was out sinking boats on their dragon this morning?” My father demanded, shooting a glare at the twins. “I have my suspicions.”

Though the twins had a mischievous streak, I couldn’t ever see them sinking boats and causing that level of destruction.

“Sinking boats?” Reign seemed just as shocked as I was.

“Bucket and Mulch saw the whole thing. And don’t try convincing me that there’s anyone else in the archipelago who could pull something like this off! Well? I’m waiting.”

Reign and I looked to the others, not really accusing them but more wanting to prove to my dad we were innocent, and all of them shrugged, unsure as to what he was even talking about. But, right at that moment, Tuff came back to, and without knowing what he was responding to, began to take full responsibility.

“It was me, Chief!” he cried, throwing his hands into the air. “I couldn’t control myself. I had to do it. What’s wrong with me? Why do I do things like this? Why doesn’t anybody do anything to stop me? Can’t you see that it’s all a desperate cry for help?” Tuff fell so far into his own dramatics, he even began to sob. Thankfully, my dad didn’t really seem to be buying it, and Ruff came up behind her brother and attempted to calm him down.

“What are you talking about? None of that happened.” Tuff cut off his crying immediately and stood up, turning to face his sister.

“I know. I always wanted to confess to something. I didn’t overdo it, did I?”

“Overall, you seemed grounded, but still it was a little hard to believe.” I watched my dad’s expression darken again, so I steered the conversation back on track.

“Dad, we’ve been together all morning. It couldn’t have been one of us,” I insisted.

“It’s true, Stoick,” Reign added. “We’ve all been helping each other pack, so there’s no way someone could have slipped away.” That seemed to seal things for my dad, whose angry expression began to dissipate.

“Well, if it wasn’t, we have a much more serious problem on our hands.”

“Rogue dragon rider?” Astrid suggested, not sounding entirely confident in that idea. I glanced over at Reign, trying to see if she had an opinion, but she’d gone oddly silent, her eyes looking at something far off on the horizon.

“Not good. Not good at all,” Fishlegs shuddered.

“It isn’t. And we need to find out who it is.”

I still remembered the location of the fishing lane, so I led the way toward where the boats usually dropped anchor. Every now and then, I looked over at Reign, but she refused to meet eyes with me. Her hands were tightly bound to Shriek’s saddle, and her gaze remained trained on one spot, completely unmoving and nearly unblinking. It was almost… haunting.

The split boat had been left in the place where the fishers were attacked, riddled with broken boards and some strange, shining objects. Everyone circled overhead, assessing the damage, before landing on the deck carefully.

“Okay, gang, let’s split up.”

I watched as Reign quickly broke off from everyone, examining a strangely shaped hole on the side of the boat. Carefully, I approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn around. Her face still looked pretty intense, but it softened slightly.

“You’ve got that look on your face, hon. What’s going on in there?” I gently tapped her forehead, trying to at least get her to smile. No such luck.

“I’ve been thinking about this rogue dragon rider,” she answered bluntly.

The sudden tensing of her posture, combined with the clenching of her fists and the fiery anger in her eyes told me everything I needed to know.

“Dagur,” I growled. 

“It makes sense. If my brother has a dragon and is attacking ships, then who’s to say we won’t be next?” She ran a hand through her hair, letting out an exasperated sigh. “Every day he’s out there, and not in custody like he _should_ be, it feels like he’s taunting me.”

I was about to try my best to reassure her, when Fishlegs brought our attention to a large chunk of wood that had been removed.

“Hiccup! You’ve got to see this.” Reign and I made our way over, running our hands along the breakage. There were what looked like the thrash marks of a dragon’s claws on the outside, but they weren’t like any ones we’d ever seen before.

“Those are some deep gashes,” I remarked, turning to Fishlegs for some attempts at answers. “Any idea what it could be?”

“This dragon is extremely powerful,” he thought out loud. “It has the slashing attack of a Speed Stinger, yet from the depth of the strikes, it appears to be as strong as a Typhoomerang.” That didn’t really make things perfectly clear, but it was at least a good starting point.

“You guys, you find anything else?” I tried my best to pay no mind as the twins ran to somewhere else on the boat.

“This ship has been stripped of everything valuable,” Astrid informed us, leaning down and checking inside a barrel.

Once she kicked the barrel aside, it drew my attention to the twins, who were shoving each other and fighting over… something. Whatever it was, I could occasionally catch a silver glimmer from it, peeking through the gaps under their arms as they moved around. It took them a moment, but eventually, they realized they were being watched, and slowly let up as Tuff hid whatever the object was behind his back.

“Nothing over here. Right, sis?” Tuff’s attempts to dissuade us weren’t exactly convincing.

“Nope, no-thing.”

“Zilch. Not a thing in front, behind, or to either side of us.”

“You know I can see that, don’t you?” Reign scoffed, clearly frustrated. Tuff raised his eyebrows a moment, clearly unsure of whether or not to give up, but eventually, he sighed and gave in.

“All right, but we get to keep it.” 

“Yeah. Finders keepers,” Ruff taunted.

“Losers…” Tuff trailed off, as though the words just fell right out of his brain. “Losers don’t get this ‘cause it’s way too cool for a loser.”

“Yeah.”

From behind his back, Tuffnut removed a large, silver tail barb. The shape of it was familiar, but the size and color definitely didn’t come from any dragon within the archipelago. At least, none that we were aware of.

“A barb!” Fishlegs pointed to the object as the sun caught it, causing a reflection that could have been blinding.

“That looks like one of Stormfly’s,” Astrid observed.

“Which means the dragon could belong to the sharp class. In fact, I’d bet my Meatlug on it.” In response to hearing that, Meatlug whimpered and nudged him, as though she was afraid Fishlegs would actually do something like that. “No, don’t worry. It’s just an expression. I’d never do that.”

Reign marched over to Tuff and placed one hand on the barb, attempting to take it from him to examine it further. However, Tuffnut quickly yanked the sharp spine back, unwilling to let her get her hands on what he clearly viewed as a prized possession.

“Tuff,” she warned, yanking on it again. When he still didn’t let up, she placed another hand on it, causing him to do the same. The two of them climbed their hands further up the barb, until Tuffnut slammed his hand over the top, causing him to cry out in pain and let go. With a satisfied smirk decorating her face, Reign brought the object over to me, where the two of us turned it over and tried to find any clear signs of the dragon species this came from.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Though I was addressing Reign, the twins immediately jumped on the opportunity.

“Good game, Hiccup! You think of something, we’ll try to guess what it is. If we do, we get a prize. Think away, my good man, and let the game begin.” Snotlout tapped his helmet, as though trying to send his thoughts to the twins.

“Let me see. I’m thinking you two are muttonheads,” he seethed.

“Yes!” Tuff cheered. “I win!”

“I was actually thinking, if we find the dragon, we find the rider. And I have a pretty good idea of how we can find the dragon.” I held up the barb, inspecting it one last time, before turning and jumping back on Toothless. “Let’s head back, gang. Reign, when we get there, grab your paper and charcoal and meet Fishlegs and I in the Great Hall.”

Once we made it back to Berk, Reign ran off to get her drawing supplies, while Fishlegs and I went to collect Bucket and brought him to the Great Hall. He tried his best to describe the dragon to us as Reign drew, constantly making a line and then erasing. For a moment, I got distracted, watching how hard she was concentrating. Whenever she was deep into doing something, her eyebrows knit together and flew apart wildly, as though performing some sort of ritual dance, and if any of her wild hair fell in her face, she’d stare at the strands angrily for a moment, then emphatically brush them aside. She’d probably get a little angry if I told her this, but honestly, I thought it all was adorable. 

“Sharp!” Bucket’s exclamation brought me back to reality. “Did I say it was sharp?”

“I know, Bucket,” Fishlegs sighed. “We’ve gone over that 20 times.” Reign turned and stared at Bucket with wide eyes, waiting for the next description she could use.

“Well, it’s got a very long tail. And it can tie itself into a knot.” Reign whipped back around and began to draw careful, little lines along the tail. “Yes. Yes, that’s right. And two large wings to slice.”

Upon the completion of the drawing, Bucket took one look of it, and his eyes went wide as he began to scream and run away. Hopefully, that was an indication we’d hit the nail right on the head with this dragon. Reign waved her hand, beckoning Fishlegs and I over, and we began to study the drawing. Whatever species this was, I didn’t recognize it.

“So?” she asked, breaking the silence.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in the _Book of Dragons_ or Bork’s papers,” Fishlegs muttered.

“But there is one place we haven’t looked yet.” I removed the Dragon Eye from one of Toothless’ saddle bags and rested it on one of the barrels. “Reign, would you mind getting Astrid and Stormfly?”

“Not at all.” Only a few moments later, Reign returned with the blonde rider and her dragon.

“So, I’m thinking since Stormfly is also a Sharp Class—“

“Her magnesium could possibly illuminate some information about this new dragon,” Fishlegs finished. Happy to comply, Astrid stuck her two knives into the barrel in front of her, so I could prop the Dragon Eye up, then had Stormfly give us a low, steady flame. The image of a Deadly Nadder appeared with different informational text around it, like expected.

“Deadly Nadder. I missed this the first time,” Fishlegs gasped, giddily jumping from foot to foot. “Who has chalk? I have to translate it.”

“Fishlegs, now is not the time,” I reminded him. Reign reached over and turned the base of the Dragon Eye, shuffling through the different dragons of the Sharp Class.

“Speed Stinger! One of my favorites. There’s so much to learn.”

“I know, Fishlegs. I got it. Later.” I was beginning to grow exasperated, but I didn’t want to discourage his excitement over all of this new information on familiar dragons. Reign twisted the base of the Dragon Eye one more time, bringing up an image of the dragon that exactly matched the drawing she had gotten from Bucket.

“That’s it!” She stopped turning the Dragon Eye and studied the words being projected onto the wall.

“It’s called a Razorwhip,” she stated, pointing at the name written above the picture of the dragon.

“Okay, Fishlegs, do your thing.” Fishlegs made his way closer to the image and read over the words, translating as he went.

“Okay. Razorwhip. ‘Sharp Class dragon. Long, spiny, barbed tail. Very aggressive. Very dangerous.’”

“Yeah, we got that,” Snotlout scoffed. When did he get here? “Give us something new.”

“Would you like to do this, Snotlout?” Fishlegs leered. Snotlout began to shift his posture, scratching the back of his neck.

“Duh! I would.” He tried his best to make out _anything_ on the wall, but the determined point of his finger began to weaken as he realized there wasn’t a single piece of text he could understand. “But, I’m just—I don’t feel like it right now.” With Snotlout’s whining quelled, Fishlegs went back to translating.

“Continuing on, this symbol indicates it can use its tail to wrap around a victim and literally squeeze the life out of it. Unless it’s in a hurry. Then it just slices you in half.” There was the sound of metal hitting the ground, and when I looked over at the source, I found Tuffnut on the floor, while his sister stood over him with her fist out. Apparently, they’d gotten in here at some point, too. This was good, though, because it meant all of us would be on the same page at the same time. 

“Fishlegs, is there anything about it that won’t kill us?” Astrid asked.

“How about its eyeballs?” Ruffnut suggested.

“No. Poisonous tears.” 

“Poisonous! Love it!” Tuff declared.

“Poison’s fantastic,” I dismissed, trying to get back to the information on the dragon. “Anything that might help us locate it?” Fishlegs scanned over the extra information, listing off anything he came across.

“Top speed, mating habits, oral hygiene, feeding habits—“ That caught my attention.

“Go back to that one,” I interjected.

“Oral hygiene?”

“Feeding habits,” I sighed. “If we figure out what this thing eats, then we might figure out where it eats.” It took Fishlegs a moment to completely translate the Razorwhip’s feeding habits.

“Sea slugs!” he declared suddenly, causing Tuff to flinch and scream.

“Where?”

“It eats slugs,” Fishlegs clarified.

“Slugs? I hate those slimy monsters.” Tuff gagged a little at the thought of the large creatures. “They’re just snails without homes. Giant, homeless snails!” I began to rack my brain for every place sea slugs resided, thankfully coming up with more than one answer. It narrowed our options, but on the down side, that would mean a lot of searching.

“We’ve come across a few islands that are crawling with sea slugs. Hopefully, our Razorwhip’s hungry.” Astrid pet Stormfly’s side, indicating for her to stop blowing out fire.

“And hungry for sea slugs, not Vikings,” Reign shuddered.

On that cheery note, everyone got their dragons ready for a long, arduous search for the Razorwhip dragon… well, all except Reign. She had slipped back into that place in her mind, the same one she got lost in earlier. It was really starting to worry me. Taking care not to startle her, I reached down and took her hand, causing her to look at me with a tiny smile.

“Is everything okay, Reign?” I asked quietly, trying not to catch the others’ attention. “You’ve been spacing out a lot today. I know you told me why before, but… when you get that look on your face, I really start to worry about you.” When I reached up to brush away some of her hair, she brought her other hand up and laced out fingers together. 

“I’ve just… been thinking about my brother a lot. I mean, he _really_ drives me insane, and on every occasion, I can’t stand him. But…” She let out a big sigh, trying to process everything she was thinking. “…it’s weird. I can’t bring myself to hate him. Maybe it’s some familial bond thing, but if Dagur genuinely was in trouble, and maybe about to die, I would help him in any way I could.” The determined glimmer in her green eyes faded as she shook her head. “I probably sound like I’m crazy.” My response was immediate.

“Not at all.” I pulled her close to me, resting my cheek on the top of her head. We stood there for a moment, basking in the silence, until Reign spoke again.

“I’m pretty sure I have a sister, too.”

Her words were blunt, to the point, and genuinely left me shocked for a moment. She’d never brought this up before, never even entertained the idea, so for her to sound so certain definitely caught me off guard.

“Y—What?” I stuttered, still trying to make sense of things. Upon hearing my reaction, Reign pushed away and turned her back to face me, crossing her arms.

“You don’t have to believe me. I know that sounds like I plucked it out of thin air, but… remember that time we were training on another island, and I ran into Dagur?” I nodded, vaguely recalling the incident. “Well, we were talking about… something—I can’t remember what anymore—and he just casually let it slip that there was a third sibling in our family. For a long time, I dismissed it because, you know, when Dagur starts rambling it usually doesn’t make much sense. But lately, I’ve entertained the idea more, and… I don’t know, I get this weird feeling she’s not that far away.”

A feeling of guilt began to creep up into me the more I thought about everything Reign just divulged to me. She’d clearly been conflicted for a while now, and I did everything I thought I could do to help… everything, except listen. Her family had always been such a difficult subject for her; I should have let her talk it through, rather than going on the patrols, and setting up the defenses, and extending the combat training. Sure, those sort of things were necessary to protect the island, but I thought they were what would make her feel more comfortable. I should have just asked.

“Reign, I—“ Hoping to provide some sort of comfort for her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and planted a kiss on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry I didn’t let you talk about all that before. Anything that’s on your mind, I want to know what it is, whether it’s good or bad.” I could feel her relax slightly, and she leaned her head back. “And, just for the record, I don’t think it’s crazy that you can’t hate Dagur, and I believe you when you say you have a sister. They’re your family, and… eventually, they’re going to be mine. I find Dagur’s actions despicable, too, but knowing that, I can’t completely hate him, either.”

“I know that was a lot to lump on you,” she muttered. “I’m sorry.” I gently kissed the side of her neck.

“Don’t apologize for speaking your mind.”

I was enjoying this peaceful moment with her, letting the mission ahead completely slip from my mind, when Snotlout suddenly threw the door open, causing the two of us to jump and move apart.

“If you two are done with… whatever you were doing, the rest of us are ready to get a move on,” he huffed, frustrated. I rolled my eyes, but knew we’d have to get going, so I stowed the Dragon Eye in Toothless’ saddle bag and climbed up onto him, ready to start the search.

The sun had been nearly blotted out by dark clouds as we approached the sixth island on our list. The others hadn’t reaped any sort of reward, leaving only this one for us to find the Razorwhip and its rider. I tried my best not to run through ‘what if’ scenarios and remain positive about this.

“I have a good feeling about this island,” Fishlegs voiced confidently, unknowingly backing up my thoughts.

“That’s what you said about the last five islands!” Snotlout groaned, his head falling back in frustration.

“I’m a ‘yak bladder half full’ kind of guy.”

“I don’t mean to burst your yak bladder,” Astrid and Stormfly looped upside down as they flew up to where Reign and I were coasting on Shriek and Toothless, “but what will we do if we actually find this Razorwhip?”

“You can marry it,” Tuffnut sighed dreamily. I heard Reign snicker before she turned to look at him.

“What if Dagur’s riding it?” she teased, clearly not expecting an answer. Unfortunately for her, that’s not what she got.

“Then Ruffnut can have him,” he stated, completely serious. “It will be complicated, but I will one day learn to love him as my own.” Reign’s devious smirk quickly turned to a disgusted grimace.

“Um, Tuffnut—“

“Like a little babe, a child that I carry in my arms. But he’s too heavy.”

Deciding to move on, I pulled out my spyglass and tried my best to get a look at the island before we landed, checking for any signs of the Razorwhip. The rocks making up the majority of the island were a steely grey, which would make it easier for the dragon to blend in, and a plume of smoke came up above the tall stacks of stone—an indication that someone was there. This had to be the right island.

“Guys, look! Smoke!” I announced.

“A campfire,” Reign concluded.

“This dragon builds campfires?” It concerned me how genuine Tuffnut’s voice sounded. Astrid shook her head, casting her gaze down to Reign and I.

“Give me the ‘twins serve a purpose’ speech again,” she grumbled, shaking her head.

“Yeah! I’ve only heard the ‘Twins are muttonheads’ speech, which is also very good.”

I moved my gaze back forward, choosing to ignore that as we closed in on the island and landed. The campfire had been freshly doused, the burning stench of the dark grey smoke that came off fires still heavy in the air. Against one of the trees, piles of crates had been stacked, and there were deep marks on a rock nearby.

“Could be loot from the ship,” Reign suggested, eyeing the crates.

“These gashes look familiar.” I pointed to the rock, showing off the gashes that perfectly matched the ones on the fishing boat. “Gang, search the island for our rogue rider and his Razorwhip. He can’t be that far away.” After everyone else took off, I looked over to see Fishlegs feeding Meatlug different rocks off the ground. It probably would be best if they were on lookout… “Fishlegs and Meatlug, signal if they come back.” Fishlegs gave a little salute, smiling.

“You got it.”

Toothless and I took off toward the chasms, keeping low in hopes of not being spotted. For a long while, we followed the trails and river, hoping that the Razorwhip would have stopped to take a drink, or we could catch the rider hiding in the shadows. I was just about to turn around and deem our search fruitless, when Toothless stopped mid-flight and growled at some point up on one of the cliffs.

“What is it, bud?”

Slowly, I brought my eyes up, resting them on a hooded figure, their face completely concealed, resting atop the neck of a silver dragon. We’d caught them.

“Nice work, Toothless!”

Unfortunately, in my excitement, I’d spoken just a little too loud, catching the attention of the Razorwhip. It snapped its head around, glaring at Toothless and I for a moment before letting out a piercing roar and taking off. But they weren’t about to lose us that easily. 

“Let’s get him, bud!”

The Razorwhip dodged between trees, clearly thinking it could lose us in the small space, but Toothless was fast enough to evade and keep up. We followed it around sharp turns and dives, and managed to just nearly miss the trees it sliced down with its tail. They fled all the way back down into the chasms, where the Razorwhip used its tail to cut up the rocks, causing a near avalanche to fall down on us. The dust and falling rocks made it harder to see, but I tried my best to guide Toothless through the storm of stones and keep up with the dragon ahead of us. In that time, they managed to loop back around, and our paths crossed just long enough to meet eyes with each other.

They were green… the same green as Reign’s eyes, to be more specific.

I’d become so distracted by that thought, I didn’t notice the large tree flying at us until it was nearly too late. With adrenaline pumping, I managed to shout, getting Toothless to fire plasma blasts at the obstacle and split it in half, causing it to hit the ground of the valley. I stared down at it for a moment, still in slight shock, but that was all the time we had to waste.

“Toothless, give me all you’ve got.” Toothless began to fire plasma blasts in the direction of the Razorwhip, getting it to dodge back and forth, unknowingly leaving itself open. Right when the dragon tilted to avoid one blast, I had Toothless fire another, which bounced off the rock and directly struck the Razorwhip, knocking rider and dragon to the ground.

Toothless and I touched down in front of them, right as the rider started to climb back onto the Razorwhip’s neck.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I warned, ready to fire another blast if necessary. Something about the rider’s body language changed, and they hesitated for a moment, before speaking, their voice unexpectedly feminine.

“I wouldn’t either.”

My eyes widened as they removed their hood and mask, revealing a braid of thick, black hair and a small face I hadn’t seen in nearly three years. Of all the people I thought the Razorwhip’s rider could be, she was the last I had expected.

“Heather?”

I continued to stare, my jaw nearly on the floor, as I attempted to form something to say. A million questions rushed to my mind at once, but no one revealed themselves as the most pertinent. Really, I should have known this wasn’t Dagur just by that passing glance. The figure of the rider wasn’t built the same, not to mention Dagur wouldn’t have hidden his identity; he would have made sure we knew he was the one to attack those ships.

“Hiccup? Are you in there?” I shook my head, bringing myself back out of my mind.

“Uh, yeah, sorry, I just… didn’t expect you to be the rogue dragon rider we’ve been chasing. What-what-what are you doing here?” She chuckled at my confusion.

“If you don’t mind, I’d rather explain it all to everyone at once.” Heather’s cheeks took on a slight blush as she started to climb onto her dragon’s back. “Plus, I… have some apologizing to do.”

I led her back to our meeting grounds, finding the others already waiting. Once we landed, and I got a closer look at them, it became clearer what she meant when she said she needed to apologize; Snotlout had water dripping from his helmet and drenching his clothes, Astrid seemed angrier than usual, Reign’s clothes were splattered with mud and grass stains, and the twins were nowhere to be seen. However, all their miffed expressions faded for a moment when they got a look at who the Razowhip’s rider was.

“Heather?” Reign gasped. “ _You’re_ the rogue dragon rider?”

“Yup,” she admitted sheepishly “Look, guys, I—“ Before Heather could finish, the group launched into their accusations.

“You rolled me into a river!” Snotlout seethed.

“You trapped me in a cave!” Astrid leered closer to Heather.

“You knocked me into a hole!” Reign growled.

“You left me dangling in a tree!” Fishlegs didn’t really sound angry, but more distressed by the situation.

“I have to admit, the chicken move brought back some memories.” Reign nodded her head toward Shriek, who was happily munching on a chicken drumstick, seemingly unaware of anything that happened.

“I’m sure Heather has a really good reason for doing what she did,” I tried to argue. “Right?” Heather turned to face me, a certain desperation in her eyes.

“I’ve been living on my own here for years and made enemies. I didn’t want you to be involved. I needed to send you back to Berk.” I watched as the anger prominent on Reign’s face faded away, now overtaken by sympathy.

“You couldn’t have just said that?” Snotlout lunged forward slightly, refusing to let up on Heather.

“Would you have listened?” she shot back. That seemed to subdue him slightly, causing him to shrink back.

“She’s right,” Reign shrugged. “We’re stubborn.”

“I don’t listen to anyone!” I rolled my eyes at Snotlout’s childishness and turned back to Heather, still needing to address the problem at hand.

“Whatever problems you have, whatever enemies you’ve made, we can help,” I assured her. “You don’t have to be out here anymore.” I smiled at Reign and wrapped an arm around her waist as she made her way over to me, looking at Heather with a soft smile.

“Hiccup, please, just let this go,” Heather begged.

“We have a base not far from here. Come back with us,” Reign insisted. “Nothing permanent. We’ll get you some provisions and catch up. You can see how you like it.” I watched as Ruffnut made her way past us, dragging her unconscious brother and setting him down at the base of a tree. Curious, Heather’s Razorwhip leaned closer to Tuffnut, purring and sniffing him, causing him to wake up.

“Whoa,” he drawled, still pretty out of it. “Razorwhip. This is the best dream ever. Like I can reach out and touch it.” The Razorwhip nuzzled into Tuff’s hand affectionately. “I can reach out and touch it.” He managed to get up onto his feet and began to run his hands along the Razorwhip’s scales, eyes wide in awe. “Cold, scaly. I, Tuffnut Thorston, take thee, Razorwhip, whatever your last name is—insert it here—to be my—“ Heather approached her dragon, smirking at Tuffnut’s dramatics. “Oh, hey, Heather. What are you doing in my dream? At my wedding? I didn’t put you on the list.”

“You’re not dreaming, Tuff,” she chuckled. It took him quite a while to fully process the fact all of this was real, but when he did, his face became filled with terror.

“Oh. Well, in that case, Razorwhip attack! Run!” Tuffnut sprinted away from the large dragon, seeking shelter behind his friends.

“I see nothing has changed.”

“Yeah,” Reign laughed, leaning us against the Razorwhip’s side. “Same story, different year.” Quickly, she changed the subject. “Let’s head over to Dragon’s Edge.”

“Not gonna give up, are you?” Heather sighed, moving some of her hair from her eyes.

“Not likely.” Finally, Heather gave in.

“Okay, Dragon’s Edge it is.” It almost felt like a weight had been lifted off my chest.

“You’ll love it.”

As Heather packed up a few of her things, I caught a giddy smile on Reign’s face. It only took her a second to realize I was staring, but even as her eyes moved to me, that sparkle never faded.

“I have a good feeling about this.” I smirked as I moved my other arm around her waist, and she interlocked her fingers behind my neck. “This is going to be great.”

“Better than last time,” I teased, causing her to reel her head back slightly.

“Watch it,” she warned, raising an eyebrow at my comment. “I’d rather forget Heather and my bad start.”

“Sorry, love,” I muttered as I leaned in to kiss her, resting my forehead against hers. But, before I got the chance, Snotlout interjected.

“Hiccup, Reign, come on! Everyone’s ready to go.” I rolled my eyes, but broke away from her and started to move toward Toothless.

“This isn’t over,” she muttered with a wink, before swinging her legs over Shriek’s back and taking off after the others.

Thor, that woman…

The moment we landed in the clubhouse and got back off our dragons, everyone flooded to Heather and her Razorwhip, gushing over the new dragon. I would’ve expected Heather to get a little overwhelmed, given how she was the last time we’d seen her, but strangely, she almost seemed to like the attention everyone was giving her. I guess that’s what happens when you’re isolated for a long time.

“Where did you find her?” Tuffnut asked, his eyes still glimmering with the excitement of the Razorwhip we’d been chasing sitting right in front of his face.

“More importantly, can we ride her?” Before Heather could answer either of their questions, Snotlout sidled up next to her and leaned against her shoulder.

“Did you miss me? I think you did. That’s why you threw a tree at me.” I could tell she was getting uncomfortable, not that I blamed her. “Playing hard to get. Me likey.” I was about to step in and do something, when Heather pushed him away and Astrid stuck out her foot, causing him to tumble to the floor. The pair of them chuckled and bumped their fists together.

“Never mind him,” Fishlegs dismissed. “How did you train a Razorwhip? Incredible!”

“Actually, I owe a lot to you,” Heather admitted.

“To us?” Reign placed a hand on her chest, touched.

“To me,” Snotlout panted as he shot up from the floor. “She meant me. How much more obvious can she be? Women. I totally understand them.” Heather tapped her Razorwhip’s head, causing her to thrust her tail out and knock Snotlout over.

“When I found Windshear —“

“Awesome name!” Tuffnut marveled. “I bet you ride like the wind, shearing through it. Get it? I used both words in its name to explain why he’s called that.” I buried my face in one of my hands, shaking my head.

“Oh, gods,” I muttered. Thankfully, Heather just moved on without really acknowledging Tuffnut’s rambling.

“Anyway, when I found her, she’d been hurt in a fight with a Typhoomerang. Windshear held her own. But she needed to be nursed back to health. When she was better, I used the training you guys taught me on Berk. We’ve been the perfect team. We’re unstoppable. Look at her! No one can take us down. And if they try, they’ll be sorry for it.” Reign and I glanced at each other warily. This was… new.

“Ha! I guess she’s pretty cool,” Snotlout scoffed, “but not as cool as this. Hookfang, flame up!”

Upon hearing his name, Hookfang came around the corner and lit his body aflame, taking to the sky and hovering a few feet behind his rider, who crossed his arms and smirked.

“That’s cute,” Heather teased. “Windshear, tail slice!” Windshear’s tail went right over our heads, cutting into the floor boards beneath Snotlout’s feet.

“Ha! What’s so great about—“ The floor suddenly gave out beneath him, causing him to fall onto one of the logs making up the platform that supported the clubhouse. Everyone leaned down, making sure he hadn’t died. “Okay, we’ll call it a draw.”

“What else can she do?” Fishlegs squealed.

“Her breath can burn the flesh off a human from 100 feet. One single blade of her tail is as deadly as the sharpest battle axe.” Snotlout managed to pull himself back up through the hole in the floor, but when Windshear showed off her tail, he screamed and dropped back down.

“Great having Heather back,” Astrid gushed as the others rushed over to Windshear. “She’s so… I don’t know, intense, hardcore. I love it!”

“It’s great.” Reign didn’t sound too convinced. “She’s definitely grown up since the last time we saw her.”

“Reign, it’s been three years. We were just kids. We’ve all grown up.”

“Yeah, but, with the exception of what happened when she stole Shriek, she was so sweet, and now she’s so—I don’t know.”

“Edgy? What’s wrong with that?” Astrid almost sounded like she was starting to get angry with the woman she considered her sister. “I like it.”

“There’s edgy, and then there’s destroying ships.” Reign looked up at me and crossed her arms. “Which we still need to ask her about.”

“Wait until I ask her about her battle axe. I want her to show me how to make one for myself.” Heather whipped out her double blade axe and began to swing it, defending against the twins thrashing in her direction with their swords.

“Is that all you’ve got?” It barely took any effort from Heather to kick Ruff down and break the blade of Tuffnut’s sword.

“See? Hardcore.” Astrid whipped out her own sword and charged toward Heather, engaging in a fight with her. Toothless purred and walked up closer to Reign and I and purred. 

“I don’t suppose you want to talk to her, bud?” Taking that as the ‘okay’, Toothless jumped up and bounded over to Heather, knocking into Reign in the process. Thinking fast, I reached over and grabbed onto her, making sure she didn’t fall over.

“Thanks,” she gasped, still a little shocked. “You want to get out of here for a bit?”

“Sure.” As we started to walk away, I turned and called back to everyone else. “We’ll be in our hut, gang.” No one responded, but that was to be expected.

Once the sun had mostly set, Reign and I made my way to the dragon stables, trying to find Heather. At first, Reign had insisted that both of us going might make Heather feel like we were ganging up on her, but I honestly would just feel better if I had her there.

“Eat up, girl,” I heard Heather whisper as she pet Windshear. “You’ll need all your strength for what we’ve got coming.” I couldn’t think of a better way to lead into this, or really get her attention, so I just stepped up behind her and started to speak.

“Heather, we should probably talk.” Surprisingly, she didn’t seem at all startled, almost as though she saw us coming.

“Sure,” she shrugged. “About what?”

“About the ship you and Windshear destroyed,” I stated bluntly. Heather appeared to tense slightly, despite her earlier will to be open, and refused to turn around at first.

“Oh,” she muttered. “That ship.”

“Heather, what are you doing?” I was trying my best not to get worked up, but the more I thought about what happened, the harder it became.

“I’m just taking care of business. Nothing to worry about.”

“But I do worry about it.” Reign placed a hand on my shoulder, relaxing me slightly. “If dragons are attacking ships, I worry.”

“Look, a lot has happened in the last few years.” Heather crossed her arms over her stomach as she turned around, closing herself off. “We’re not kids anymore. Everything’s changed.”

“This isn’t you,” I argued. “It can’t be!”

“It is now.” Part of her almost seemed ashamed. I was about to speak again, when Reign pushed past me and slowly approached Heather, putting that warm, tiny smile on her face. “The last time you saw me, I—“ She quickly cut herself off. “Never mind. If you want me to leave—“

“He never said that. I wouldn’t want that,” Reign assured her, placing a hand on her back. “No, whatever it is you’re going through, we can help. All of us. There’s another way.” Finally, Reign got Heather to smile.

“You’re so sweet.” Heather pulled her into a hug, sighing. “Thank you, Reign. I know we got off to kind of a bad start, but… you’ve always been a great friend to me.” After a moment, Heather broke away and wrapped me up into a hug. “You have, too, Hiccup. I can’t thank you both enough.”

“We’ll let you get back to tending to Windshear. We can bring you something to eat, if you don’t want to deal with Snotlout.” She laughed, but waved her hand dismissively.

“No, that’s fine. I can make something for myself.” Reign seemed hesitant, but sighed, stepping away from Heather.

“All right. Just let one of us know if you need something.” Heather nodded.

“I will.” The moment Reign and I were out of Heather’s earshot, she turned to me and stopped me in my tracks.

“She’s still plotting something.” I furrowed my brow at her, silently asking for an explanation. “I can tell. She’s still planning on doing whatever it is she’s been doing this whole time. And I’d bet anything she’ll try and slip out tonight.” I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. “Okay, tonight, we’re gonna stake her out. We’ll go into the dragon stables while she’s eating dinner, and then when she leaves, we’ll follow her and figure out what she’s doing.” Part of me worried about Heather seeing us while we were out, but I had to admit, I was pretty curious myself.

“All right,” I sighed.

Heather went to dinner not long after Reign and I finished eating, leaving us the perfect window to sneak over to the dragon stables. Once we got there, the dragons began to squawk and growl, creating a bit of an uproar that might have alerted some of the other Riders to our presence. Reign and I just chose to ignore it, hoping their excitement would settle down once we made ourselves scarce. The two of us climbed up the ladder onto the platform where we kept the extra supplies, and Toothless jumped up onto the ceiling, hanging upside down like a bat. Carefully, I grabbed onto the straps of Toothless’ saddle, using them to hoist myself up, then reached my hand down to help Reign. Once she’d adjusted herself, I wrapped my arms around her waist, and Toothless folded his wings over the two of us, pretending to fall asleep. Given the context, this was a pretty uncomfortable position to be in—with Reign pressed so tightly against me that every time she breathed, it pushed back on me a little—but things could be _much_ worse.

I could be stuck doing this with Snotlout… or the twins.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, when I heard footsteps approaching, and the clicks of the locks on the dragon pens. Heather must have been locking them in so they couldn’t go get their riders, or try to follow her wherever she was going.

“Hey. Hey. Shh,” I heard her whisper. “It’s okay. Sorry, guys. Nothing personal.” It was only a few moments later that the sounds of Windshear’s wings cut through the silence, and once it had faded just enough, Toothless unfolded his wings and allowed Reign and I to get on his back.

“Okay, bud, let’s get some answers.”

We had to take care not to fly too close to Heather, since she was constantly looking over her shoulder. We’d gone pretty far from Dragon’s Edge, but finally, she started to descend, indicating she was landing soon. Toothless latched himself onto a sea stack and peered his head over, allowing Reign and I to see. Windshear landed on the bow of a ship in the water, leering at whoever Heather was meeting. Carefully, Heather climbed down and began conversing with the person. Reign reached into Toothless’ saddle bag and pulled out my spyglass, handing it to me so I could try and get a closer look. Trouble was, the mysterious person’s back was facing me, so I couldn’t tell who it was.

“Come on, just turn around. Let me see your face.” As though they heard me, the person pulled out some large map and turned to face in our direction, revealing himself to be… Trader Johann? “Okay, this is getting strange.” Johann explained whatever was on the map, then passed it off to Heather, who spoke with him another moment before taking off. Windshear’s image got closer in the spyglass, meaning they were coming right for us. “Toothless!” Toothless quickly ducked back behind the sea stack, just a few moments before Heather and Windshear soared past us. Hopefully, she hadn’t seen us. “Okay, Johann, let’s see what we can get out of you.”

Johann jumped as Toothless touched down on his boat, suddenly wringing his hands and refusing to meet either mine or Reign’s eyes.

“M-Master Hiccup! Miss Reign! Wh-What brings you to my humble ship at this hour of the night? Could I be of some service to—“

“Can it, Johann,” Reign snapped. I stared at her with wide eyes, shocked. I’d seen her scold people before, but I think this was the first time she was openly harsh with someone that wasn’t her brother. “Take a seat. We have a couple of questions.” Nervously, he took a seat, his eyes bouncing from myself to Reign. “Now, what exactly did Heather want from you?” His eyes immediately flickered downward, watching as he drummed his own fingers.

“I’m sorry, Miss Reign. I’ve been sworn to secrecy.” Strangely enough, he really didn’t seem that sorry. “The chief of the headhunting Asmat tribe from Papau, New Guinea couldn’t part these lips!” This wasn’t working. Johann was used to Reign being intimidating; that wouldn’t get him to speak. 

I slammed my hands down on the table, causing all parties present to flinch.

“How about Stoick the Vast of the Hooligan tribe from Berk?” I got in close to Johann, causing him to squirm. “Do you know what trade sanctions are?”

“Two words that should never be used in the same sentence?”

Johann seemed to think he could keep up this game, until he turned to his left and Toothless growled at him, and when he looked forward, Reign had one hand on her sword.

“Right! Where shall I begin?” I made my way over and took a seat on the stool across from Johann, while Reign remained with one hand on the table, leering at the man in front of her.

“Let’s start out with why Heather is out attacking ships.”

“It would have something to do with her entire village, including her own family, being decimated by a rather nasty group of undesirables,” Johann explained. “She’s made it her personal mission to avenge her island and her family.”

“By sinking and looting ships?” Johann hesitated for a moment, causing Toothless to snarl and push himself right up in Johann’s face.

“She’s not looting. She’s redistributing back to the victims of these horrible crimes. Every ship Heather attacks means they’ll get back some of what they’ve lost. Of course, lost loved ones can’t be replaced.” That still didn’t explain why Heather attacked one of our fishing boats.

“But why? Why now? Why her?”

“Many ‘why’s, Master Hiccup. None of which I can address at this very moment.” Exasperated, I sunk down and buried my head in my arms.

“Johann, why do we do this?” I groaned.

“Sorry?”

“You know you’ll tell me. I know you’ll tell me. So why not save us both the trouble and just—“

“I suppose you do have a point,” he sighed. “Picture, if you will, a brilliant sunny day on the Emerald Isle on Karantha when I received a mysterious correspondence from a little boy. Yet again—“ I wasn’t sure why I let Johann ramble for that long. I slammed my fist down on the table, cutting him off.

“Johann! Where is Heather going?” Toothless flashed his teeth at Johann, and Reign removed her sword from its sheath, resting the blade on the table so the point was facing him.

“It’s not merely where she’s going, Master Hiccup, it’s who she’s going after. Miss Reign, you’ll be quite familiar with them.” She barely missed a beat, instantly knowing who it was.

“Dagur…” she growled. “We have to go after Heather. No doubt my brother will be expecting her, and he’ll have an armada waiting where she can’t see it. If we don’t help her, she’s as good as dead.” Reign sheathed her sword and leaned forward. “Johann, where is she going?”

Thankfully, Johann had a copy of the map, marked with different potential locations for Dagur. Reign scanned over it for only a moment, then got up on Toothless and waited for me. Once the two of us took off, she guided me to each location. It took until daylight, but we finally caught up to her.

Unfortunately, by the time we reached Heather, Dagur had her and Windshear completely surrounded and wrapped up in chains, slowly pulling her toward the ship.

**_To Be Continued…_**


	12. Have Dragon Will Travel, Pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh boy, here we go, you guys. Here comes some of the good stuff. Here come the plot twists. And sure, there’s the one that most people are expecting, since it’s part of the episode, but who knows? Maybe there’s more than one. Maybe things will be forever changed by the end of this chapter. Just saying ;)

I reached my hand up and smacked Hiccup’s shoulder, trying to get him to snap out of his horrified state. Not that I blamed him, of course. If we couldn’t do something soon, Heather would be as good as dead, and not only did I want her to stick around for a long while, but no way did I want to give Dagur that satisfaction. Just because I couldn’t totally despise him didn’t mean I wanted to see him succeed in any capacity.

“Hiccup, we have to save her!” I cried, trying to get him and Toothless to move. Without warning, Toothless suddenly shot forward, nearly throwing me off as the three of us dashed for Dagur’s ship. Nothing about what we were doing was subtle in any way, shape, or form, and as a result, my brother spotted us in just moments.

“Well, look who the dragon flew in!” he shouted up to us. “Glad you could join us, sister. It wouldn’t feel like a family reunion without you. Oh, and of course, I couldn’t possibly forget you, Brother Hiccup. Now, take out that Night Fury!”

‘Family reunion’? What in the name of Thor was Dagur going on about this time?

Bolas and ropes were tossed in our direction, attempting to at least clip Toothless and cause him to flinch, but he was too fast, and they all ended up several feet away from us. Hiccup managed to steer him right to the center of the ships, giving us an open shot at all of the chains. Good thing Dagur’s men weren’t exactly capable, otherwise this might have been hard.

“Blast the chains, Toothless, now!” Hiccup ordered. Toothless began to fire plasma blasts at one of the silver restraints, but instead of breaking apart like expected, it almost seemed to absorb the blast, remaining in one piece. “Dragon-proof chains?” Hiccup circled Toothless around, trying to look for a weak spot we could expose. Reveling in his assumed victory, my brother cackled and pointed at us.

“Nice try, Hiccup. You didn’t think I’d make it that easy for you, did you?”

We were running out of time. Though Heather was trying her best to get out of the chains, she just wasn’t strong enough—not that any one Viking could be—and Dagur’s men were close to reeling her and Windshear in. My eyes desperately searched the armada, when another bola suddenly whizzed past us, catching us off-guard.

“Whoa! Okay, that was too close. Come on, bud.” 

Toothless dove back down again, closer to the water this time, and managed to pretty much sneak into the center of the armada. That’s when my eyes landed on the wooden winches being used to crank in the chains, and an idea popped into my head.

“If we can’t blast the chains… blast the winches.”

Right as one of my brother’s men removed a net to wrap Heather up in, Hiccup cried out, and Toothless fired at the winch on his boat. I so desperately wanted to stay and see the look on Dagur’s face when he realized his sister had outsmarted him again, but we had to get Heather out of here now. Toothless destroyed the rest of the winches, allowing Heather to push the chains off her and Windshear and get back into the proper riding position.

“Nice shooting, bud,” Hiccup complimented. “And good quick thinking, Reign.” I shrugged, trying not to appear too proud.

“I figured my brother wouldn’t dragon-proof the chains _and_ the winches. That would take someone far smarter than him.”

Hiccup stopped Toothless short, right in front of Heather, who didn’t seem too pleased to see us.

“You can’t take on Dagur and his fleet all by yourself,” I warned, pointing down at the ships.

“I’m not by myself,” she argued. “I have Windshear.” A bola shot right in between the two dragons, which gave Heather the chance to turn around and start to head back for the ships. But we couldn’t give up. “I’m too close. I might not get this shot again.”

“But this is suicide!” It scared me that she wasn’t listening.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes.” My heart dropped in my chest as I realized there may not have been a way to talk Heather out of this.

Thankfully, Hiccup seemed to think of something that changed her mind.

“Are you willing to sacrifice Windshear, too?”

That have her pause. The angry scowl she wore went away as she glanced down at her loyal Razorwhip, who looked up to her with loving, completely trusting eyes. Though I knew it killed her, she sighed, her shoulders drooping. She was caving.

“Heather, there will be another time,” I assured her. “I promise you.” 

She groaned, angry, but flew past the armada and back toward Dragon’s Edge, leaving us to follow her. For most of the ride, no one said a word, guilt eating at me every time I glanced down at her. She just wanted to get that sort of closure, but I couldn’t, on good conscious, let her go in there and risk getting killed.

Heather’s anger slowly melted away, too, and after another while of tense silence, she spoke up again.

“Blasting the winches, pretty smart.” I smiled at her.

“Yeah, and a little luck never hurts, either.” My mind went back to what happened, leaving me feeling that gnawing guilt again. “Hiccup and I talked to Johann. He told me Dagur wiped out your village… and your family.” Her eyes flickered away again. “I’m sorry.”

“Then you know why he has to pay.” I sucked in a breath as Hiccup flew Toothless closer to her and reached back to take one of my hands.

“Heather, it’s complicated for me. On one hand, Dagur has done some absolutely terrible things, things that keep me up some nights—and I’m not even the one he does most of these things to. But, on the other hand… he’s my brother. I don’t want to see him die. He deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life, but I just… I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I had been a part of killing him.” That flicker of anger returned to Heather’s eyes for a moment. “But, we can help you catch him and get him locked away. You don’t have to do this alone; I just don’t want to have to resort to the most drastic measures.”

“I don’t know,” Heather sighed. “It seems like I’m destined to be alone. First, when I was a little girl, I get separated from my birth family.”

That caught my attention. Heather’s birth family? I didn’t realize she’d been adopted.

I guess we had a lot more in common than I thought.

“Your birth family?” Hiccup asked, just as shocked as I was.

“Yes, but I don’t remember much. It was so long ago. Just a few pictures in my mind.” For the first time today, I saw a genuine smile cross her face. “I remember my father’s hands. They were rough like sandstone, but so gentle. And I remember the smell of his wooden shield. I don’t think I was supposed to play with it, but he let me anyway. And this.” She removed a small, white horn from her belt, holding it out for Hiccup and I to see. “He gave me this horn. I don’t know if it means something, but whenever I look at it, I think of him. I just wish I knew who he was.”

Hearing the things that Heather said… it reminded me so much of myself. After I came to Berk and couldn’t remember my family, save for a few memories, and I so desperately wanted answers, I was willing to fly through the entire archipelago for the rest of my life, just for even the smallest bit of information.

“I know exactly how you feel, Heather.”

Anything tense from earlier completely left the air between us, and Heather went back to smiling pleasantly as we headed back to Dragon’s Edge. When we landed, everyone was already waiting at the clubhouse, seemingly confused as to where the three of us had gone. Although they wore relieved smiles, none of them approached us at first. Heather slung her bag over one of the chairs and looked to the others apologetically.

“Look, I’m sorry I locked up your dragons. I just didn’t trust that you guys wouldn’t let me go after Dagur.” The twins nodded at each other, seeming to believe her. This was a good start.

“Trust does need to be earned with people and dragons,” Fishlegs shrugged, seemingly over the incident. I watched as a tiny blush crept up Heather’s cheeks.

“Thanks for understanding, Fishlegs.” He giggled, clearly at a loss for words. I looked at Hiccup, who had the same shocked smirk on his face as I, causing us both to laugh slightly.

“I don’t really trust these guys either,” Snotlout stated brazenly, pushing Fishlegs aside.

“We can hear you,” Astrid scoffed.

“Jealousy is an ugly quality, Astrid. But clearly, I understand where it comes from.” Astrid clapped her hand over her mouth dramatically, as though trying to hold back vomit. As the conversation started to die down, Hiccup moved from my side and approached Heather.

“The point is, we have your back, Heather. You’re one of us.” She seemed pleased with the reassurance.

“Yeah, I stocked Windshear’s stable with a bucket of sea slugs.” Snotlout glared at Fishlegs, his hands planted firmly on his hips.

“And I made room for you in my hut.” Based on the way he spoke, it sounded as though he expected her to be honored. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what there was to be honored about, and clearly, neither was Heather.

“And I’ve made it clear to Snotlout that you’re not staying in his hut.” Hiccup’s statement served more as a stern reminder to the cocky Viking.

“Even though you were the rogue dragon rider and you sabotaged our dragons and you snuck away in the night…” Tuff started to trail off, losing his point. “Wait, why do we like you again?” Heather stepped up, placing a hand on her chest.

“I’m truly sorry, Tuffnut.” Caught off guard, he stumbled back.

“Whoa! That was… sincere. What am I supposed to do with that?” He began to hyperventilate, furthering his dramatics. “I’m feeling a little bit flushed and overwhelmed. Little help here? People!”

“Ugh, help yourself!” Ruffnut groaned, not even bothering to follow her brother as he took a seat.

“And if you need any help with Windshear—“

“Why don’t I show you around the Edge?” It was really starting to enrage me, how Snotlout kept cutting off Fishlegs and _only_ Fishlegs, who was genuinely trying to help Heather. “I’m basically chief.” 

Heather backed up, shrinking down helplessly, as everyone began to surround her, save for Astrid, Hiccup, and myself. She waved her hands furiously, attempting to get them to step down. It was pretty clear she wasn’t used to this level of generosity from people, but to be fair, everyone was being a bit over the top.

“Thanks, guys, really. I—“ The final straw came when Ruffnut slammed one of her hands against the wall, right by Heather’s head.

“Hey, glad you’re back. Your dragon rocks.” Thankfully, Astrid reached under the group and yanked Heather out of there, using her other arm to loop through one of mine.

“Let’s go have some girl time,” she suggested, trying to get Heather away.

“Good idea,” Heather sighed. Before we left, I approached Hiccup and rested a hand in his hair.

“I’ll be back later, okay?” He smiled and kissed my cheek.

“Take your time. You deserve a break from everything that’s been happening.” I nodded, kissed him gently, then rushed off to join Heather and Astrid.

The three of us flew for the clearing where we’d set up targets for training, just far enough away that hopefully, no one would bother us. At first, Heather and Astrid just worked on their target practice, chucking their axes at the red and white circles to see who had the best accuracy. Swords were hard to throw, but I didn’t mind sitting this one out and just chatting. Astrid removed her second axe from her belt and threw them, hitting both targets in the same place.

“Two axes are better than one.” Heather smirked and removed her own axe from its holster.

“True. Unless you have one of these.” She flicked the axe, causing the other blade to extend out, and began to twirl it, building up enough momentum so that when she launched it, it hit the target so hard some pieces broke off.

“You really have to show me how you made that.”

“Sure, but I prefer close combat to throwing…” Heather grabbed yet another axe and swung it right into the tree closest to her. “…so I can stare my enemy in the eye.”

Smirking, I made my way over and removed the axe from the tree, slinging it over my shoulder.

“Not a bad tactic,” I complimented. “But don’t discount…” Heather had just enough time to duck out of the way as I chucked the axe, burying it deep in a tree far from us. “Hyah!”

“Hmm… the element of surprise. I like that.”

“It’s one of Hiccup’s favorite tactics.” I took care to rock the axe up and down, making sure I wouldn’t knock down the tree in the process of getting this thing back.

“So, you two are getting married, right?”

Heather completely caught me off guard, shocking me to the point that I accidentally threw the axe, causing it to fly up and get stuck in a tree way up high. We’d have to use dragons to get that thing down…

“What? No, no, not yet,” I stuttered. “We don’t really think now is a good time for that sort of thing, there’s just too much going on. Besides, he’s 18 and I’m 19; we’ve got plenty of time to get married. So, we’re still just boyfriend and girlfriend for now.”

“You should see them together, though,” Astrid chuckled. “It’s like they’ve already been married for years.” I rolled my eyes at her, but still wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against my side for a moment.

“Ah, you know I wouldn’t do that without telling you.” Heather chucked her axe again, hitting the target right in the dead center.

“Well, whenever you two decide the time is right, I can already tell you’ll be great as husband and wife.” I moved some of my hair behind my ear, unsure of what else to do.

“Now, you and Snotlout, that’s a match made in Valhalla,” Astrid teased, causing Heather to shake her head, before the three of us burst into laughter. “I don’t know whether to thank you or feel sorry for you.”

“I can handle Snotlout,” she assured us. “And besides, I’m not into the macho Viking type. I like a little smarts. Like Fishlegs.

“Fishlegs? Seriously?” I was surprised Astrid hadn’t picked up on that sooner. 

“What? I think he’s funny and cute.” Heather removed her axe from the target and folded it back up.

“We’re talking about Fishlegs, right? The guy with the Gronckle?”

“Okay, all right,” Heather laughed. “Enough boy talk. What else do you do for fun around here?” The smirk on Astrid’s face told me exactly what she was thinking, and I definitely wasn’t ready for jumping off a cliff today.

“You know what? You two go ahead. I’m going to head back. That whole game… it’s not really my thing.” I started to climb on Shriek.

“Are you sure, Reign?” Astrid asked, her eyes worried and confused.

“Yeah, totally sure. Besides, I think I need to eat something. You go show Heather… that thing.” I winked at them, and with a wave, I headed back toward the clubhouse.

I was surprised to find my boyfriend there, staring at something in his hands.

“Hiccup?” He jumped, nearly throwing the object in his hands. As I got a closer look, I realized he was holding Heather’s horn in his hands, and the color had almost completely drained from his face. “Something wrong, doll?” He hesitated for another moment, before holding the horn out for me to take. I turned it over in my hands, when my eyes caught a carving on it that was _extremely_ familiar.

It was Stoick’s Chief Seal.

I gasped, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“Hiccup, that’s—“

“I know.” His voice was weak, as though it’d tried to leave his body. That meant that Heather… might be Hiccup’s sister? But how did that make sense? Sure, Heather was older than us, which meant she _could_ have been born before Hiccup’s mother was taken, but wouldn’t Stoick have at least mentioned _something_ before this point?

That’s when a key piece of what Dagur said earlier came back to me.

“’Family reunion…’” I muttered. “Of course. It makes sense. If he already knew Heather was your sister, and he knows that eventually… you’re going to be his brother-in-law, then that technically would make her and him family.” Hiccup was already in the process of getting Toothless ready to fly.

“I need to talk to my dad. I need… I need to know what’s going on.” I nodded, handing the horn back to him.

“Do you want me to stay here, or—“

“No, no!” He tried his best to calm down, squeezing one of my hands tight. “Sorry. I just… I definitely need you with me right now.” I offered him a little bit of a smile.

“Then I won’t leave your side. Let’s head to Berk and get some answers.”

The trip back to Berk was silent, allowing Hiccup time to completely process everything before confronting his dad. Shriek and I remained close to him and Toothless, offering our support in any way we could. If this was true, it changed so many things about Hiccup’s life, not to mention Stoick’s. To know his long-lost daughter had at one point been a traitor… that was a lot to take in at once.

As we landed in the center of Berk, I noticed Gobber waving us down, a big smile on his face. Ironic, considering what was happening. Not that he had any way of knowing.

“Hiccup! Reign! From my lips to Odin’s ears. I was just saying I could use yours’ and your dragons’ help with a pesky flock of wild Nadders that have been driving me batty!” He gestured his hand to a small group of Nadders, who seemed to know Gobber was talking about them and screeched. “Yeah, you heard me, you lousy—“

“No time, Gobber,” Hiccup interjected, holding up the horn. “I need to see my dad. It’s urgent.”

“In that case, he’s in the Great Hall. But it’s Berk’s Gripe Day, so there might be a bit of a wait.”

Just as Gobber had warned, a line stretched from the edge of town, all the way to the Great Hall, where the vague shouts of Hiccup’s father could be heard. Not wanting to waste time, I started to cut through the line, but only a moment later, I realized Hiccup wasn’t by my side. I turned back around, spotting him standing in the same place he had been, his eyes vacant and his expression completely blank. Out of fear of scaring him, I approached him carefully and took his hands.

“Hiccup, love?” He shook his head, coming back to reality, then rested his forehead against mine.

“I’m fine. I just needed a minute.”

Before I could ask any further questions, Hiccup pulled us through the crowd and up into the Great Hall. I could see Sven kneeling in front of a bored Stoick, clutching a sheep to his chest.

Nice to see nothing changed around here.

“Dad!” Stoick sat up, eyeing Hiccup and I with concern.

“Hiccup?” He held the horn up, putting the seal on full display for his father.

“We really need to talk.” Stoick had to lean forward in order to see what Hiccup was trying to show him, but once he realized what it was, his eyes went wide, and he cleared everyone out of the Great Hall.

The silence felt as though it were strangling me, causing my leg to bounce and my heart rate to rise. Stoick carefully studied the horn, and Hiccup and I leaned against one of the columns, waiting for him to say something, _anything_. I kept squeezing his hand, he’d squeeze it back, and it started to help with the anxiety of the moment.

“Where did you get this?” his dad finally asked, still carefully studying the object in his hands.

“It’s Heather’s,” Hiccup informed him. His dad seemed to recognize the name, but didn’t say anything in response. “She’s the girl that stole Shriek a few years back.”

“Yes… Heather,” Stoick muttered. Hiccup looked to me for help, and I squeezed his hand again, offering him some reassurance.

“Dad, that horn has your Chief Seal carved into it.”

“It does.” He didn’t offer Hiccup any more information.

“Is there something you need to tell me?” Hiccup prompted, trying to get his dad to voice whatever was going through his mind. Stoick sighed and finally turned around, looking down at the two of us.

“When a chief has a child, that child receives many gifts from all over. When you were born, I asked Gobber to make the smallest axe he’d imagined. With a handle tiny enough for a baby to grasp. I wanted you to start training the moment you opened your eyes. I thought your mother was going to feed me to the boars.” A tiny bit of relief hit me as Hiccup chuckled.

“I remember that axe.” Stoick’s smile dropped again.

“Yeah, you used it as a paperweight.” I couldn’t hold back the little bit of laughter that burst out.

“That sounds about right.” I made myself stop laughing, so Hiccup could get back to the extremely important matter at hand.

“About the horn, Dad. Heather told me her father gave it to her. But it has your seal on it.” He paused a moment, trying to force himself to ask the question he clearly was having a hard time believing himself. “Dad, is Heather my sister?”

Stoick fell silent again, his eyes closing. The two of us waited with baited breath, tired of all these dramatic pauses when we just wanted answers. The tension fell over the three of us, feeling as though it was pushing down on my shoulders and attempting to force me onto the ground. Something was clearly very wrong, or completely life-changing, about whatever Stoick was about to say.

“No, Hiccup. Heather is not your sister.”

As Hiccup began to mutter to himself, the pieces floating loose in my mind started to come together. The ‘family reunion’ comment specifically calling me out, mixed with the fact Dagur once told me that we had a sister, and the inkling I had that she was somewhere close. Couple that with the time I had to disguise as Heather, and the group kept pointing out that they could barely tell the difference between Heather and I…

Slowly, I brought my eyes off the ground, meeting Stoick’s dead on. I could barely hear my own thoughts as my heart begged for freedom from my rib cage, my hands trembling like the ground during an earthquake. It all made sense now.

“She’s mine, isn’t she?” Stoick didn’t say anything, but the look on his face was a dead giveaway. “Heather’s my older sister.” I barely had enough time to process that bombshell, when Stoick spoke again.

“Not exactly, Reign.” My eyes narrowed, confused.

“What do you mean ‘not exactly’?” Stoick sighed and gestured for me to take a seat on the table surrounding the fireplace, kneeling down to meet eyes with me. I could see Hiccup in the background, his face quite shocked as well.

“Heather isn’t your _older_ sister, Reign.” I scoffed.

“That doesn’t make sense. I’m 19, Heather’s 20; ergo, she’s my older sister.” The fact Stoick didn’t respond filled my stomach with dread, forcing panic up my throat with a bitter sting. “I’m not 19, am I?” I whispered.

“Now, Reign, before I explain, I just want you to understand that I didn’t keep this from you to upset you. I just thought, you genuinely believed you were younger than you were, so I didn’t see the harm in letting you think that. But, it’s important to tell you these things.”

I gripped down on the table harder, to the point where I was losing feeling in my fingers.

“You see, Heather was born five years after your brother, meaning yes, she is 20. But you… you were born only 4 years after your brother.”

I couldn’t describe what I was feeling now. There definitely was dread in there, but I could also feel… horror? Shame? A slight fear this was going to be the end of my relationship?

“I’m 21?” Slowly, my eyes drifted up to Hiccup, whose face had gone blank again. “I’m three years older than you?”

“I know this is a lot for you to take in at once, Reign. I’m sorry I never told you earlier.” I couldn’t bring myself to say anything, my eyes refusing to leave Hiccup’s.

“Dad, could you give us a minute?” Hiccup asked quietly. Stoick got up onto his feet a little too eagerly.

“Yes, yes, of course. I’ll leave the horn here, and… let you two have some time.”

Hiccup and I remained a good distance from each other even after Stoick left the Great Hall, a tense silence pushing on the two of us. Neither one dared to speak before the other, both still attempting to process everything. Two years had been taken from me, but that wasn’t the worst part. I felt worse for Hiccup, who just learned something so major about his partner, something he clearly was having trouble dealing with. He was dating someone who, in the traditions of our society, had pretty much run out her time to get married and have children. Sure, Hiccup and I never subscribed to that idea, or really wanted to be traditional, but I always had wondered if it lingered in the back of his mind. I couldn’t even imagine what he was thinking right now. Was this too much for him? Would he want a break to process everything? A permanent end to what we had to be with someone closer to his age?

The thoughts and questions began to race faster, forcing selfish tears into my eyes. I tried my best to breathe and get them to go back down, but of course, Hiccup noticed and immediately rushed to my side, sitting next to me and taking my hand.

“Reign?” His voice sounded far away, echoing against my skull. “Reign, love, I need you to breathe. Here, look at me.” Slowly, I turned my head, looking him in his eyes. “In, and out. In, and out.” My breathing began to slow as he guided me through, trying to get me to a point where we could talk.

“Hiccup, I really didn’t know.” Though I tried my best to calm down, my words still came out as sobs.

“I know, Reign. I know,” he assured me. “None of us knew. My dad never told me, though I wish he had.”

“If this… changes your mind about anything with us, I understand.” It didn’t make me feel good that Hiccup laughed at that.

“Reign, it’s just new information, that’s all. Honestly, yes, it’s going to take a little getting used to, but I promise you I’m fine with this.” As much as I wanted to believe him, my own inhibitions in my brain kept me from it. “Come here.” Before I could protest, Hiccup grabbed onto my waist and shifted me into his lap, grabbing onto my chin to get me to look down at him. The smile on his face made my heart melt, stilling some of my trembling. “Your age doesn’t change who you are. You’re still the same Reign I’ve known for years. I still love you just as much as I did before we knew this. You’re still the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. Nothing has changed, okay?”

The dread and sadness that weighed me down began to float away, replaced by overwhelming love. I tried to think of the right thing to say in response, but too many things came at once, so I just leaned forward and started to kiss him. How in the name of Thor did I get so lucky? Out of all the Vikings in the archipelago, I’d met and fallen in love with one of the smartest, most understanding, and kindest.

“Thank you, Hiccup,” I muttered, breaking away. “Thank you. Gods, what did I do to deserve you?” He hummed, burying his face in my neck.

“I should be asking the same thing about you,” he breathed.

I could have stayed like this forever, but there was another party involved in this whole issue that had yet to know the truth about her identity. So, with reluctance, I stood up and dragged Hiccup onto his feet.

“Come on. We have to get back to Dragon’s Edge so I can talk to Heather. Hopefully, this won’t go too badly.” I shuddered at the potential of the worst outcome. “I’m more worried about what’s going to happen when she realizes us being related also means she’s related to Dagur.”

Stoick still seemed apologetic when we bade him goodbye, despite my best attempts to assure him everything was going to be fine with Hiccup and I. If there wasn’t a certain urgency to the rest of this revelation, I would have suggested we just stay here overnight. But, I needed to get back to my… sister.

I officially loved that I could say I had a sister.

When Hiccup and I got back to the Edge, things were oddly silent. Even the dragons weren’t purring or screeching in their pens, like I would have expected. A part of me thought the others were maybe helping Heather train Windshear in the air, until my eyes rested on a parchment map with one specific symbol circled, pinned to the door with one of Astrid’s knives.

They were going to get themselves killed.

“Heather?” Hiccup called out. “Guys? Where did everyone go?”

“Uhh… babe? You might want to look at this.” Hiccup and our dragons came over to me, the former of which studied the map carefully.

“Oh, no.” Immediately, I got back on Shriek.

“We have to catch her before she does something she regrets.”

I didn’t dare to say a word as we took off in the direction Heather’s map indicated, staring forward at the horizon, as though she would suddenly appear there, flying back toward us because she had changed her mind. But I knew, deep down, that wouldn’t happen, and something told me that Heather wouldn’t stick to her word, purely out of emotion.

My heart lept into my throat when we finally reached Dagur’s armada, my eyes trained to his ship in particular. Heather and Astrid had his hands tied behind his back and a gag forced into his mouth, with the former leering over him. She held her axe against his throat, with Windshear at the ready.

Thankfully, right as Windshear separated her tail barbs and raised it in the air, Hiccup and I were close enough. Toothless shot a plasma blast at Windshear to distract her, while I stood up on Shriek’s back.

“Stop!” I cried, jumping from my dragon’s back, and used a rope to slide down. Hiccup and Toothless remained in the air, ready to fire if another complication arose. Heather glared at me as I approached her, gripping her axe tighter. “Heather, stop,” I begged.

“Move, Reign,” she growled, throwing my hand from her shoulder.

“You don’t understand!”

“You promised me there would be another time, and this is it!” I reached over and unlatched the horn from my belt, holding it out to her. 

“Look. You told me your father gave you this.” Her anger shifted into confusion.

“He did, but what are you doing?” I turned the horn slightly and placed my finger over the carving on the side.

“This is Stoick’s Chief Seal.” She let out a gasp, her eyes wide as dinner plates as she reached out with a shaky hand and took the horn from me.

“Stoick’s seal is carved in my horn?” Her voice shook now. “What are you saying?”

“Years ago, Stoick gave this horn to the Chief of the Berserker tribe, Oswald the Agreeable, as a gift to his youngest daughter after her birth. _You_ were that daughter, Heather. Oswald the Agreeable is your father. And he’s my father.” I touched Heather’s back and turned her to face the man tied up on the floor. “And, he’s also Dagur’s father.”

Her entire face went slack, to the point where I thought she was about to collapse, and her eyes just went blank. Maybe this wasn’t the best place to reveal this, especially in front of Astrid, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if she had gone through with killing Dagur.

“No…” she whispered, her voice barely rising about the sound of the rest of the Riders firing at the other ships in the armada.

“Heather, Dagur is our brother. You can’t kill him.” Her eyes drifted from her brother to Astrid.

“Astrid.” She spoke as though Astrid knew about this, and for whatever reason, hadn’t told Heather.

“I—“

Cannonballs flew over our heads and the blasts of dragons’ fire grew too close for us to stay here. Astrid rushed to the side of the boat and peered over.

“It’s the rest of Dagur’s ships!” she informed us. “Look out!” A cannonball struck the boat, knocking me back and slamming me against a set of crates. Another ship pulled up beside this one, and two of Dagur’s soldiers lowered a gangplank for him to escape. As much as I wanted to see him locked up, we couldn’t risk the lives of the others.

“Heather, we have to go.” She refused to get up from kneeling on the ground, not even acknowledging my voice. I jumped as Dagur got to his feet and broke free from the ropes Heather had been using to restrain him, his twisted smile staring me down.

“I have to admit, you never disappoint, sister. Though I never thought you’d remember how old you are. I nearly forgot myself.”

“Heather, come on!” I urged, ignoring my brother’s clear attempts to get into my head. Dagur sneered down at our younger sister.

“Reign isn’t the only family you have, Heather.” Hiccup and Toothless landed on the deck, right in front of Dagur in an attempt to scare him off, but to no avail. “Join me, sister! Don’t fight destiny. I know you feel the Berserker blood flowing through you veins. Don’t become a disappointment, like your sister.”

My stomach twisted as Heather got up off the floor, a smirk worming its way onto her face. She wouldn’t be a disappointment; she’d be better than our brother. Wasn’t that what she wanted, even before she knew she was part of our family?

“Heather, please!” My voice broke as I looked to her. I’d only learned a little while ago she was my little sister, yet the love I felt for her made it feel as though I’d known we were related my entire life.

Thankfully, I seemed to get through to her, and rather than taking Dagur’s hand, she launched over him and landed on Windshear’s back, taking off in the direction of the Edge. I couldn’t help but flash a big, sarcastic smile at my brother before Shriek and I flew off to join her. Though I flew by her side back to our base, we never ended up talking about anything, and when we got back, she said she needed some alone time to process everything. In the meantime, I gathered the others up in the clubhouse, figuring they needed to be updated on all of this as well. They all looked to me with wide eyes, waiting for me to say something, but when I opened my mouth, all the words got stuck in my chest, and that terror I felt earlier came flooding back. Desperate for help, I looked up at Hiccup, who offered me a supportive smile and held onto my hand. I almost instantly felt myself relax, and finally had the strength to tell my friends about everything.

“So, guys, there’s this thing I learned today, and I think it’s important for all of us to know. Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff, I know you weren’t there, so I’ll just let you know… Heather is my sister, which means she’s Dagur’s sister. And she needs some time to process that, so just… Snotlout, don’t bother her.”

“Hey!” he protested. “Why are you only calling me out?” I just shot him a look and moved on.

“But, there’s something else as well. See, despite what our current evidence might suggest…” I trailed off for a moment, trying to think of a way to phrase all of this. Before I could, though, the direct words just came right out. “I’m actually 21, not 19.” Though everyone wore varying expressions of shock, I was glad to see none of them outwardly appeared angry or disgusted. There was silence for a long while, but finally, Astrid spoke up.

“Are you okay, Reign?” I nodded, shifting a little closer to Hiccup.

“Yeah, I think I’m okay with it now.” Hiccup brought his arm up and around, draping it over my shoulders. “I got really lucky.” Though the heartwarming nature of the moment temporarily swept me up in its arms, I had to let myself down when my mind drifted back to Heather. “But… there is someone who’s not okay with things.” Gently, I slid off the table and started to head toward the door. “I have to go see my sister. I’ll be back.”

I found her at the dragon stables, packing up the few things she’d brought with her in Windshear’s saddle bag. I felt a dull pain in my chest at the realization she was going away, wishing I had more time with Heather.

“Guess you’re leaving.” Heather snapped her head up from the bag. “Again. I thought you were tired of being alone.” She momentarily glanced back at me, then turned back to Windshear. Carefully, I approached her.

“I am,” she admitted.

“Then don’t be. It’s safer here. You have support. And I’m here.” I sighed when she didn’t turn around, trying so desperately to reach her. “Heather, I know it’s a lot to take in. I had a hard time dealing with it when I learned Dagur was my brother, too. But I just want you to know, it’s not all bad. Clearly, I haven’t turned out like him, and I have full faith you won’t, either. You’re my sister, Heather. I want to help you.” Finally, she turned to me, her eyes wet with a few stray tears.

“I know. I just have a lot I need to figure out.”

As much as it pained me to see her go, I understood. Heather wasn’t the sort that liked to feel cramped when something was wrong, from what I’d seen, and everyone on the Edge constantly trying to ask if she was okay or needed anything would definitely be overwhelming.

“Well, in that case, I’ll always be here, whenever you need me. And if I’m not here, then I’m on Berk, and you’re welcome to find me there as well.” I picked her axe up off the ground and handed it to her. A smile worked its way onto her face, and I was momentarily caught off guard when she wrapped me into a hug, but not a second later, I embraced her back.

“Thank you, Reign,” she whispered.

“What are big sisters for?” That made the two of us laugh.

“Well, of all the women in the world who could be my sister…” She trailed off a bit as Hiccup approached, but soon came back to what she meant to say. “…I’m glad she turned out to be you.”

Heather and Hiccup nodded at each other, bidding a silent goodbye, then she and Windshear turned and headed off into the horizon, likely going back to the camp where we’d found her. At least if things got rough, we’d know where to find her.

“Hey, I know you two were really starting to get close,” Hiccup muttered. “I’m sorry you’re losing you sister.” For a moment, I felt that intense sadness again, but the moment I looked at Hiccup, some of it instantly felt lifted from my shoulders.

“But, I still have you.” I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and placed the other hand on his chest, watching until Heather and Windshear completely disappeared into the sunset.

The hope that I would see my sister again soon kept me positive.

I felt Hiccup tug on my shoulders with a certain urgency, causing me to look up with him with one eyebrow raised.

“What’s up with you?” I chuckled.

“We have some time before dinner. We should head back to the hut.” I rolled my eyes, but turned on my heel to walk with him. A break after all this overwhelming news would be nice.

I’ll never stop wondering how I got so lucky.


	13. The Next Big Sting (Hiccup)

I pulled on the metal supports of the mechanism attached to my back, trying my best to get the wings to spread out as far as they could. A few stray droplets of water fell into my eyes, dragging my hair down to block my vision. I could hear Reign muttering about how I was going to get myself killed, shaking her head in disapproval. But I knew things were going to work this time.

For the past couple of hours, I’d been testing out my first ever flight suit, the Dragonfly One. I’d been working on it ever since Toothless and I got separated while rescuing Gustav way back when he came to visit, but it wasn’t ready to be tested until now. Unfortunately, the last few tests had failed miserably, resulting in the need for Reign or Toothless to come rescue me from the water, or right before I crashed onto the rocks below.

She seemed no more assured by the confident smile I wore, nor did the rest of the group. Everyone seemed pretty convinced this was going to fail again.

“This time, I absolutely know where I went wrong,” I asserted. “It’s all in the timing. I judged the updrafts wrong. I assure you, I definitely have it now.” Toothless purred and perked his head up, prepping himself to jump down for a rescue. “Don’t worry, bud. I’ve got this under control.” As though to prove my point, a strong wind blew in the direction I intended to go, pushing me to jump again. “See? There it is.” I bent my knees, crouching down and mentally prepping myself for the leap. “Okay, now!”

At first, that familiar panic overtook me as I began to plummet toward the water again. My arms and legs involuntarily flailed, in a desperate attempt to somehow make this work. But just as it looked like I was about to fall in the water again, the wings of the Dragonfly One caught the draft and fanned out completely, causing me to hover just above the glassy liquid and sail forward, if not with a bit of jarring and shaking. Once the initial shock faded, I began to laugh, still in disbelief this had worked.

“Wait! I’m flying? I’m flying! Woo-hoo!” My movements caused the Dragonfly to dip slightly, and I immediately corrected myself, remaining as still as possible. “Excellent!” A wall was coming up in front of me, giving me the perfect opportunity to try out turning. “Okay, right turn.” I tilted my shoulders down to the right, but I only wobbled, rather than completely turning. I tried again, but to no avail, meaning if I didn’t do something quick, I’d be slamming head-first into solid rock. “Might have to work on the steering a bit. Toothless!”

For a moment, I worried Toothless might not have heard me at all, and there was no way I’d be able to detach myself in time to drop into the water before the crash, but thankfully, just as I was running out of water, a black blur shot down and pushed me into the shallow river below. I accidentally inhaled some water as I went down, and when Toothless dragged me up onto the shore, I coughed and sputtered, trying to catch my breath.

“Thanks for the save, bud,” I gasped out, propping myself up on one of my elbows. Just as I was managing to get up, Toothless shot out all the water in his mouth right at me, the force of which knocked me right back down. “Again.” My hand rested on a broken wing of the Dragonfly, which would need repairs immediately. “Well, it looks like our flight tests are probably over for the day.” As I tried my best to straighten out the wing, the others landed in front of me, and Reign immediately jumped off Shriek, looking as though she was going to murder me.

“Okay, that’s it. You’re done with this,” she snapped, though I could see the concern in her eyes.

“Right,” I muttered. “For now.” Normally, once she finished her scolding, she would run up and I would kiss her, assuring her I was fine, but this time, she hung back, eyeing me awkwardly before moving to stand by Astrid.

I couldn’t pretend I didn’t notice the gap that seemed to be forming in our relationship at the moment. Ever since Reign learned her real age, she’d become a bit more distant, more hesitant to display any sort of affection, be it public or private. It worried me, seeing as how it was such a dramatic change from before. At first, I had figured she just needed some time to process everything—I did, too, admittedly—but it had been weeks at this point, and she’d only distanced herself more. I tried, on a couple recent occasions, to ask what she was thinking, but she just brushed it off and said she was just fine. At this point, I was starting to worry our relationship was beginning to dissolve.

The screech of a dragon brought me out of my slight mental spiral. All of us looked around, trying to figure out where exactly it came from, but there was nothing within the immediate vicinity.

“What was that?” Astrid asked, still looking around.

“Sounded like a dragon in distress,” Fishlegs informed us.

“Something about that call seems strangely familiar…” Snotlout drawled. “And not good familiar. Bad familiar.” I climbed on Toothless’ back and led the group over the island, searching for any dragon downed or otherwise out of place. Snotlout had lingered behind for a moment, but once I shouted for him, he snapped back to it and followed along behind us, still wary of the familiarity of the dragon call. As we followed another branch in the river, the dragon’s screeching got louder, meaning we were getting close.

“The calls are coming from up ahead.” When we rounded another corner, a small, green dragon stuck its head up and cried out to us, trying to scare us off. Snotlout wasn’t going to be happy about this dragon, but if he needed help, we had to do something. “A Speed Stinger.”

“Why did it have to be a Speed Stinger?” Snotlout lamented.

“Looks like a young one.” Still, that didn’t explain why it was here. “Why would it be out during the day? They’re nocturnal.”

“Poor little guy. Let’s head home!” I rolled my eyes. “It’s getting dark, and where there’s one, there’s usually a whole pack!” 

I watched as the Speed Stinger attempted to take a step, but the moment it put its left leg down, it collapsed in pain and cried out, staring at the limb as though it betrayed the body it was part of.

“Hiccup, its leg is badly injured,” Fishlegs confirmed, “and Speed Stingers can’t fly.” That made up my mind. Snotlout could whine, gripe, and grovel, but we had to help nurse thing Stinger back to health.

“That’s why we can’t leave it to predators. Come on, Toothless.”

I pulled on Toothless, getting him to loop back up around and head back toward the Speed Stinger to get a better look at it. Once the whole group landed, the Speed Stinger hissed and stuck its tail in the air, revealing its bright red stinger in at attempt at intimidation.

“Hey, whoa, no, no. Easy there,” I soothed. “Easy, little fella.”

“It looks like it can defend itself just fine,” Snotlout dismissed. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Shh!” Reign hissed. “Quiet down, Snotlout.”

“You quiet down,” he shot back.

“This little guy won’t be a match for wild boars or dragons. A Stinger without its pack is extremely vulnerable.”

“Must’ve gotten separated from the others, and they had to go before the sun came out,” Fishlegs suggested.

“Sounds right. Let’s go.”

“We can’t leave him like this,” I sighed. “We’ll bring it back to Dragon’s Edge, nurse it to health, then bring it back.”

By the time we went to Dragon’s Edge and came back with the materials we need to catch this Speed Stinger, the sun was beginning to set, meaning we’d need to move fast or risk getting overwhelmed by an entire pack of Speed Stingers. Reign hung toward the back with a shield, ready to jump up and deflect the sting if necessary, Astrid was poised to strike with the net, and twins were open and willing to function as our distraction.

“Ruff, Tuff, you understand the plan?” I whispered, trying my best not to wake up the Speed Stinger in front of us.

“Yeah, of course.”

“Definitely.” The pair exchanged a glance, and their confident smiles immediately fell. “No.”

“Nope.” I groaned and rolled my eyes. Honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting from the twins.

“All right. You secure the Stinger so that I can set the splint with the broken pieces of Dragonfly One. And be careful. We all remember what these guys’ stings can do.”

“You don’t have to remind me,” Snotlout shuddered. “I know what they can do.” The Speed Stinger lifted its head at the noise, seemingly leering right at Snotlout as he growled. “This plan is insane. You know that, right? If I’m saying it’s insane, it’s actually insane.”

“Actually, it is insane.” Tuffnut’s eyes slowly went wide, and he kneeled down slightly, as though huddling up with his sister would somehow keep me from hearing what they were saying. “And for once, it wasn’t our plan.”

“I’m seeing a pattern here!”

“First that lunatic flight suit, now this. Could it be?”

“Is Hiccup coming over to our side?”

“Oh, Loki, please let it be so!” Tuff clasped his hands together, amping up his own dramatics. “We will welcome him with open arms. Teach him the ways of the truly disturbed!” I waited a moment, making sure Tuff had completed whatever he was doing, then tried to get them back on track.

“Guys, please,” I sighed. “Let’s just do this.”

The twins cackled lowly, then broke away from each other, each taking one side of the Speed Stinger. It glared at them and showed its tail off again, but that didn’t deter the twins from getting this dragon under control. Frightened, the Speed Stinger swiped its tail out, forcing me to jump back.

“Come and get me!” Tuff taunted, spreading his arms out. “Fresh meat on the grill, right over here.

“No! Over here!” The Speed Stinger turned its head to Ruff. “I’m all yours.” I shook my head as the twins started to dance around the dragon, clearly getting too caught up in their games to remember what they were supposed to be doing. “Turn me into a pin cushion. I’ll give you a target. It’s my butt.” The Stinger swiped its tail again, but the twins managed to duck in time.

“That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?”

“Guys, what are you doing?” I interrupted. “I meant secure the tail!”

“We know what we’re doing.” In the second Ruffnut was distracted, the Speed Stinger managed to hit her on her hand, causing part of her body to slowly seize up. “Whoa. Whoa, whoa, what’s happening to me? I can’t…” Interestingly enough, not all of Ruffnut had frozen, like I would have expected from a Speed Stinger.

“Talk? She can’t talk!” Her brother began to poke at her and move her mandible around, mimicking speaking. “I think that’s what she’s saying.”

“Hmm. Interesting,” Fishlegs hummed from behind me. “Only part of her is paralyzed. Since it’s an adolescent, its sting potency must not be at full effect.” Sure enough, Ruffnut could still walk around, but her entire upper half remained still and useless.

“How do we get it to sting her lower half?” An idea popped into Tuffnut’s head, and he began to wave his arms over his head. “Here, Speedy. Come on,” he whistled. “It’s the lower half of Ruffnut. Don’t you want it?”

Tuffnut managed to taunt the Speed Stinger into getting up, forgetting its injury momentarily, only for it to take one step and collapse back down, subduing it for a few moments. I had to admit, I was impressed. Though it was unconventional, the twins had managed to get the Speed Stinger down.

However, when Tuff dove for the dragon, he failed to secure the tail, leaving us few moments to get it down before the dragon hit him. Despite the fact he could have just reached over and held it down, he just stared at the thing, leaving himself completely vulnerable.

“Someone help Tuff!” I shouted. In just a moment, Reign dodged a swipe of the Speed Stinger’s tail and jumped, managing to pin it down.

“I got the stinger!” she announced. Meanwhile, Astrid lunged out and held down the dragon’s thrashing head, silencing it for a bit.

“I got the head.” Working quickly, I placed the two metal bits of the splint on either side of its leg and wrapped it up with some spare bandages I’d dug up.

With the splint finished, Reign, Astrid, and Tuff quickly jumped back, making sure they themselves wouldn’t get stung. But the Speed Stinger didn’t care about them, instead focusing on the person that had put something strange and new on him.

“Hey, okay,” I soothed as the Speed Stinger screeched. Toothless curled up behind me, growling and ready to strike if something went awry. “We’re here to help.”

Pushing down the fear of getting stung, I closed my eyes and turned my head away, leaving my hand out as a sign of alliance for the injured dragon. No one, neither human, nor dragon, dared to make a sound, waiting with baited breath for something to happen. I could feel the Speed Stinger’s breath brush against my fingertips, then the relief of it nuzzling into my hand allowed me to open my eyes again. We’d gained the Speed Stinger’s trust, at least for now, which hopefully would allow us to take it back to the base without much of an issue.

“Okay, we think we’re good. Let’s load him up and get him back.”

“You know the pack is going to do everything in its power to find it, right?” Reign pointed out, setting a hand on her hip.

“That’s why we have to get him back to this island as quickly as we can.”

I hoisted the Speed Stinger up and managed to hold it in my lap as we made our way back to Dragon’s Edge without it putting up any sort of fight. Once we got back, I passed it off to Fishlegs to care for, and all of us broke off for the night. Reign and I made our way back to our hut wordlessly, her arms crossed over her chest, and once we got inside and I closed the door, she collapsed onto one of our stools and looked down at the floor. Carefully, I pulled my own stool up next to hers and sat beside her. For a moment, I reached out my hand to rest on her leg, but against my better judgement, I pulled back. We just sat there in silence for a while, until she found her voice, as hoarse as it was.

“Astrid asked me what was going on today,” she whispered, her shoulders beginning to shake. “And I told her I needed to tell you first because… you’ve been asking for a while, and I know you’ve just been trying your best to help me, and I’ve been such a jerk, and I’m probably really upsetting you, so I—“

“Reign.” She glanced at me warily. “Of course I’ve been worried about you. You’ve been my girlfriend for three years. When something’s off, it’s not hard for me to notice. I just wanted to know what was going on, if you were ready to share, but I get it if you’re not.” This time when I reached over, I settled my hand on her knee. However, the second I made contact, she jerked her leg away and shot up. “Reign?”

“Do you know how weird this is?” Suddenly, she went off like a shot, exploding into a fit of yelling as she finally reached her catharsis. “All of this just feels so wrong in my mind. You still have the word ‘teen’ in your age, and I haven’t had that in a few years, but I thought I did. Do you know what the other women my age are doing? They’re raising their kids with their husbands, settled with someone their age. And then you look at me, and I’m that weird woman hanging out with people younger than her, running around. Hiccup, I love you dearly, but you have to understand how this feels for me! Not only did I have two years of my life taken away, but it doesn’t feel right. I thought I could be used to it by now, but there’s that nagging part in the back of my mind, telling me that I’m doing something wrong!”

For what seemed like the first time in that speech, she took a breath, holding back some very clear tears attempting to break free. I sat there, staring at her face as I tried to completely process everything she’d laid on me. The longer I stayed silent, the more panicked she became, but I wanted to make sure I’d completely pulled my thoughts together. Once I’d formed enough of a comprehensive response, I stood up and crossed the room, wrapping my arms around her. She seemed to hesitate at first, which only made it that much more relieving when she returned the embrace.

“I think you’re perfect just like this,” I mumbled into her ear. “I meant it when I said your age really doesn’t bother me. It didn’t change you, Reign. You’re still charismatic…” I began to kiss her between compliments. “…and brave, and kind, and fierce. I still love you, now even more than I did before. And I’ll spend the rest of my life reminding you of that, if that’s what it takes.” There was still the other matter I had to address. “I can’t pretend I understand everything you talked about. I know pressures in society are different for us, but I don’t expect that you should be settled right now. No one should tell you how you should be living your life, even if it’s the standards of society. We’re doing things the way we want, right? So let people say whatever they want. I’ll try my best to set them straight if you want me to.” That made her laugh, bringing a smile to her face for the first time in days. “I will always love you, Reign, no matter how old you are. A few years doesn’t matter to me.” She reached down and tangled our fingers together, resting her head on my chest.

“And I will always love you, Hiccup. Thanks for helping me deal with all of this. It’s just all so new, it’s still raw, I guess. And I’m not saying I’m perfectly okay with everything now, but it’ll get better.”

“I’ll be here with you,” I assured her. “Forever.”

I held Reign close to me as we made our way toward the dragon training arena, hoping to check up on the Speed Stinger. Fishlegs had been working on rehabilitating it for the past few days, spending his days sleeping and his nights helping the dragon.

When we arrived, Fishlegs quickly closed the dome behind us, and rushed over to the cage where the Speed Stinger waited, visibly itching to get out and run around. Astrid and the twins were already waiting for us there, but it didn’t seem like they minded us being late

“Have a look at this.” Fishlegs unlatched the cage, and the Speed Stinger slowly crept out, making sure the environment was safe before running around in a couple of circles, as though showing off how good his leg was now. I was impressed, considering how quickly it had made a recovery.

“Wow. Nice work,” I smiled, watching the Speed Stinger happily jump about.

“Uh-huh. All thanks to the carefully designed rehab program based on trust and understanding.” Suddenly, Meatlug got distracted by something else, and when she ran away, Fishlegs’ arm fell to his side, limp and useless.

“Fishlegs, what’s with your arm?” Reign asked, pointing at the dangling appendage.

“Let’s just say the Stinger and I may or may not have had a few differences in opinion these last few days.” Tuffnut began to poke and prod at the arm, as though he could somehow get it to wake up again.

“Look at that!” he laughed. “It’s like a dead old fish.” Fishlegs rolled his eyes and pushed Tuffnut away with his functioning arm

“Okay, Meatlug, back to work. And we’ll bring this just in case.” Realizing he couldn’t reach his shield with his working arm, he began to hit it with the dead one until it fell off. Unfortunately, he couldn’t catch it on time, so it started to roll away from him. Rather than running and trying to catch it, he just grabbed one higher up with his normal arm, his head drooping in exasperation.

In that time, the Speed Stinger made its way over to the logs Fishlegs had set up, to help it get used to jumping again. It stared at them, cocking its head and trying to remember how it did this.

“Come on, little fella, you can do it!” Fishlegs coaxed, beckoning in his direction. Meatlug nudged the Stinger, and with that last little bit of encouragement, he started leaping over the logs, making it over to the other side without stumbling once.

“Huh,” Reign grunted. “Ornery and stubborn, but it seems like it’s accepting Fishlegs and Meatlug.”

“Makes sense, they are pack dragons,” I remarked. “They function as a group. But if they accept you, then you have their allegiance.” Reign caught on to what I was implying pretty quickly.

“You’re not actually thinking of trying to train it, are you?”

“What? No!” I scoffed. “No. I could never.” She didn’t seem that convinced, the rolling of her eyes gave that away, but I just kissed the top of her head, and the two of us moved to the center of the arena. As we did, the dome slid open, and there stood Snotlout. I was kind of impressed he even came here, considering he’d been protesting the Speed Stinger’s presence since we took it in.

“Well, well, well, lookie here.” Fishlegs and the Speed Stinger looked up at Snotlout, slightly confused. “Our little friend can stand on his own again. Only a matter of time before it’s trying to sting us into oblivion.” The Speed Stinger jumped down from the perch it had been on and shrieked at Snotlout, trying to scare him off. “My vote is we take it to where we found it. I’ll get the cage.”

Snotlout pushed Reign and I aside, and although I called out to him, trying to get him to stop, he was undeterred on his mission. The Speed Stinger growled and pointed the stinger on its tail toward its aggressor, but Snotlout just growled right back.

“He’s staying here,” I asserted, trying to get him to stand down. “At least for the time being.”

“Having a Speed Stinger around is too dangerous, especially for me.” He tried to walk away, but the Speed Stinger caught up to him and blocked his path. “Not even on your best day, pal.” He began to throw punches in the direction of the Stinger, aggravating it further.

“Good news!” Ruff announced, running in our direction. “The Stinger venom wore…” In an attempt to strike Snotlout, the Stinger swung its tail, inadvertently hitting Ruff’s leg in the process. “…off.” She collapsed to the ground, her skin going pale again as her legs lost their feeling. We needed to pen this guy now, before it stung anyone else.

“Okay, everyone. No sudden moves,” I warned.

“Oh, who’s got jokes,” Ruffnut mocked, pulling herself up with the help of a trunk. “Frozen from the waist down. Come on.”

“Hey, settle down, big fella.” The Speed Stinger still roared at me, flashing the dangerous red on the end of its tail. “I’m your friend, remember?”

Ruffnut had managed to get herself up onto the trunk and into a sitting position, but the moment she managed to cross her legs, one of them shot out involuntarily, kicking her brother and causing him to flinch. Detecting the movement, the Stinger jerked its gaze over to the twins.

“What you do that for?” Tuffnut seethed, only furthering the Stinger’s interest in them.

“Like I have any control—“ Her other leg shot out, hitting Tuffnut under his chin and knocking him to the ground.

“Guys? Quiet down,” Reign hissed, sounding as though she was scolding children. “I think he’s agitated.”

“Makes two of us,” Tuffnut growled. “You better control that butt before it gets kicked.”

With its energy completely built up, the Speed Stinger began to run around, thrashing its tail in an attempt to strike what it perceived as a threat.

“I was afraid of this. Everyone, take cover!”

Reign immediately grabbed onto my arm and pulled me tight against her, using her other arm to remove her shield from her back and hold it out in front of us. Slowly, she backed us up toward one of the perches, making sure all sides of us were protected.

“Please remain calm,” Fishlegs advised. “Everything is going to be okay.” The Speed Stinger moved right at Fishlegs and Meatlug, causing them to scatter, and when it made a hard right, its stinger struck Barf, immediately causing his head to fall over and begin spewing gas.

“Barf!” Ruff cried, trying to reach out to her dragon and help him, but she herself was frozen, so she just ended up falling over.

“Stormfly, spine shot!” Astrid ordered. Stormfly shot out four spines from her tail to drive the Speed Stinger toward the cage, and Toothless fired plasma blasts, getting it back into its pen and shooting one last time to close the door, causing the latch to fall down.

“Guys, a little help here?” Ruffnut asked from the floor. Somehow, she managed to pull herself all the way over to Barf’s head.

“Uh, no,” Tuff shot back.

Ruffnut managed to hoist herself up onto her Zippleback, and the rest of us decided to vacate the area for a while, giving the Speed Stinger time to calm down. All of us congregated back at the clubhouse, with Ruffnut and Barf and Belch the last to arrive. Barf’s tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as Belch dragged his head along, gas trailing their entire path. 

“That is really unsettling,” Reign muttered, unable to turn her head away.

“Exactly as I thought this would end up,” Snotlout boasted. “That thing is going to paralyze everyone on the island. There’s going to be no one to take that stupid dragon back to where we found it.” I opened my mouth to try and protest, but before I could get one word out, a loud yawn escaped, causing Reign to giggle.

“I’m too tired to argue with you,” I sighed. “We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

Reign linked her hand with mine as I slung an arm over her shoulders, leaning my head against hers as we made our way back to our hut. Once she shut the door to our hut, I smiled and kissed her, sweeping my arm under her legs to pick her up.

“I thought you said you were tired,” she laughed, resting her hands on my shoulders.

“I could stay up a little longer.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes, but still reached up to kiss me again.

Fishlegs eagerly bounced on his feet, ready to show Reign and I what he’d learned about the Speed Stinger. Apparently, on the night he took the splint off, the Stinger began to run around, and in the process, ended up running over the water, courtesy of the webbing they seemed to have developed between their toes.

“This is enormous, Fishlegs,” I marveled. “Finally, actual proof of dragon evolution. It’s historic.”

“I know, right.” He pushed open the dome, where the Speed Stinger was hopefully sleeping, so that we could check it out without risking getting stung.

“The webbing actually inspired me to make a few changes on something,” I admitted. Reign glanced at me, her expression exasperated and wary.

“If you say Dragonfly Two, I’m locking you up,” she warned sternly.

“Oh, no.” Fishlegs voice drew our attention to him. He had his head fully in the cage, which wasn’t a good sign. “He’s gone.” Sure enough, Fishlegs stepped aside slightly, revealing no Speed Stinger.

“How could he have gotten out?” Reign shouted, her eyes bouncing around the dome just in case he was somehow hiding in the shadows. It didn’t take long for me to realize what happened, however.

“He couldn’t. At least, not on his own. And I have a pretty good idea of who helped.” Reign caught on immediately after.

“Oh, I’m going to strangle Snotlout when we find him,” she snarled. “Come on, let’s go find them before they get themselves into even more trouble.”

We flew around the entirety of Dragon’s Edge, just to make sure they hadn’t gotten off the ground yet, but they weren’t anywhere to be found. Before we left, Reign went to Astrid’s hut to get her to come with us, and the four of us took off for the island where we had found the Speed Stinger. They weren’t in the same spot where it had been stuck, but when we took off again, the flaming body of a Monstrous Nightmare caught my attention. Everyone caught on at the same time and landed in front of Barf and Belch and Snotlout, staring down at the Speed Stinger and making sure he wouldn’t sting Snotlout.

“Hey, Hiccup.” I looked over to see Ruffnut hobbling toward me, the whole right half of her body completely numb. “I got stung again. Just the right side this time. I tried to walk it off, but I keep going around in a circle.” I stared for a moment as she dragged herself in small circles, then focused back on Snotlout, fuming.

“Dragon-napping, Snotlout?” I sighed, exasperated. “This is a new low, even for you.”

“I was trying to save us!” he argued.

My heart stopped when the Speed Stinger roared at Shriek and Toothless, and a much louder, more guttural roar came back in return, from somewhere not that far away. Reign yanked her sword out of its sheath, eyeing the horizon.

“You guys heard that, right?” she hissed.

“Please tell me that was an echo,” Fishlegs quivered.

The next screeches were much closer, so loud that it clawed inside my eardrums until I finally clapped my hands over my ears. There were far more screeches that time than could come from just one Speed Stinger, filling me with dread as that realization hit me.

“Oh, no,” Astrid gasped. “The pack’s come looking for it.”

“How is that possible?” Snotlout cried. “Speed Stingers can’t fly!” He wasn’t going to like this next bit of news.

“We did just discover that these particular Speed Stingers can travel across water,” Fishlegs informed him.

“What? How?” I slapped my hand over his mouth, trying my best to silence him and keep from drawing any unwanted attention in our direction.

“If we keep quiet, we might not give away our location.” The young Speed Stinger screeched, unfortunately drawing the pack’s attention toward us. All our dragons growled and crouched down, preparing to defend us against the small dragons.

“I’m guessing that very soon I’m gonna wish I could run in a straight line,” Ruffnut slurred.

They came over the hills fast, taking in the sight of their missing pack member before their eyes moved to us… his captors.

“You!” Snotlout accused. “I knew you’d rat us out!” The louder roar came back again, and the Speed Stingers from the pack all lowered their heads as the Alpha, coated in red stripes, stepped forward, glaring at us.

“Guys, stand your ground!”

At the Alpha’s command, the pack rushed down the cliff, encircling each of us and running around, holding their tails straight in the air as a threat of what was to come if we stepped out of line. Toothless tried to fire plasma blasts at their feet to scare them off, but they just jumped over the fire and went right back to running in their formation. Meatlug ended up getting stung when she tried to scare them off, leaving her frozen with her tail in the air.

“There’s too many of them!” I shouted. “Our only hope is to draw them away.” Snotlout grabbed a stick off the ground by his feet and began to swing it at the Speed Stingers, suddenly looking as though he was protecting the one we’d rescued.

“I’m not leaving anyone behind!” he declared, fending off one that tried to charge at him.

“Since when?” I scoffed.

“Since right now! Don’t ask why, but I’m suddenly feeling selfless and heroic. Back! Stay back!”

The harder we tried to fight, the more Speed Stingers the Alpha sent in. I thought we were overwhelmed before, but that was nothing compared to multiple layers of Speed Stingers, all eyeing us like we were their next meal. Granted, they wouldn’t dare, but they’d sting all of us to protect a member of their pack, and leaving us immobile was just as good as leaving us for dead.

“Uh-oh. Gotta get away.” Ruffnut began to drag herself in circles again. “Come on, leg.”

Suddenly, Snotlout reached down and snatched up the rescued Speed Stinger, taking extra care to hold onto the tail and keep the stinger away from him.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back.” He sprinted straight toward all the Speed Stingers, drawing their attention to him. “Come and get me, Needle Butts!” Everyone stared in awe as Snotlout disappeared into the woods, committing a completely selfless act for what seemed like one of the few times in his life.

“Go get ‘em, Snotlout!” Ruff cheered, throwing her useful limb in the air.

“Should-should we go after him?” Reign stuttered, her eyes wide as she stared at the spot where Snotlout had gone into the woods, and I slung my leg over Toothless’ saddle.

“You guys stay here and keep an eye out for anything. Most of the Speed Stingers should have followed him, but stay alert. I’ll go out there and make sure he was okay.”

When Toothless and I reached the scene, we found most of the Stingers collapsed on the ground, paralyzed with venom and attempting to crawl away, while the one we rescued circled the Alpha, standing his ground in front of Snotlout.

“He’s torn between his pack and the one that saved his life!” I informed him, shouting down in an attempt to get his attention. “Ours.”

“But he hates me!” I heard him cry.

“But you’re one of us. It’s his instinct to protect you.” The Alpha got a little too close to them, so Toothless shot a plasma blast at the ground, forcing it to back off slightly. “Get out of here before he realizes he has to choose a side.” Despite everything that happened earlier, it looked as though Snotlout was reluctant to leave the Speed Stinger. Still, he listened and started to back off. “Okay, bud. Let’s get them back in the water.”

Toothless began to fire at the group of Speed Stingers, chasing them toward the shoreline. Along the way, a few tried to break off, but Stormfly’s tail barbs shot down suddenly, creating a path for them to follow.

“I brought back-up.” She directed my attention toward Barf and Belch, who took advantage of the fact Barf couldn’t stop spewing gas to create a large, thick wall of fire, and Shriek, who roared just loud enough to scare the Speed Stingers back in line. The Alpha, however, hadn’t been discouraged, and found a way around the wall of fire, jumping up a group of rocks and sinking his stinger into Belch, knocking him and Tuff to the ground.

“Barf and Belch are down. We need to get rid of that chief.”

As Toothless and I flew toward the Alpha Speed Stinger, it screeched and started to hop in our direction, getting enough momentum to launch off the cliff and head straight for us. He had his eyes dead set on me, but he had no idea what I had planned. There was no way he’d catch me. I slipped my hands into the loops on my sleeves, making sure they were properly secured before sitting up a little.

“Toothless, separate!”

Just before the Speed Stinger struck me, I jumped off Toothless’ back and spread my arms out, extending the flaps of the Dragonfly Two, which was more a few pieces of fabric attached to some poles on my armor. It seemed to be working _much_ better than the previous model. This one actually held promise, now seeing it in action.

“Dragonfly Two, go!” I cheered, soaring over Toothless’ head. The Alpha smacked onto the sand, taking a moment to shake himself off before getting up again. He screeched, but upon seeing he was surrounded by dragons, he relented and turned to follow the rest of his pack.

“Yeah! Swim away, Stingers!” Snotlout jeered. Reign and Shriek flew up under me, catching me in the air and bringing me back onto the ground. She looked as though she was about to kill me, but I could take that for now. Still, she kept it down when the rescued Speed Stinger growled quietly, staring off at the rest of its pack running back toward home. He still seemed torn, but when I came closer, he purred and nuzzled into my hand, seemingly offering his allegiance.

But, when I looked up at the pack, I realized it was time to let him go. He’d been healed, now he needed to be with his own kind. Especially while he was still developing.

“No. I’m sorry, but, little guy, you need to go back with your own.” He seemed to understand, cocking his head at me before turning and running over the water, catching up with his pack.

“What are you doing?” Snotlout demanded. “We can’t let him go back!”

“Snotlout, it’s where he belongs. That’s his real pack.” His shoulders slumped over.

“Just when we were starting to get along,” he whined. “Why does this always happen?” My eyes moved to Reign, who kept hers on the horizon as she approached me.

“Can you believe what that dragon did? He helped us, over his own Alpha,” she gushed.

“For that time, he was part of our pack. And we were part of his. Even Snotlout, somehow.” She brought her arm around my waist as the two of us glanced at Snotlout, who stood in front of the twins.

“Scared?” he scoffed. “The Stinger was more scared of me than I was of him.” Tuffnut made a big show of looking out toward the ocean, squinting his eyes at something.

“Isn’t that them swimming towards us?” Snotlout tensed, balling his hands into fists.

“Maybe they’re coming back for you, Snotlout,” Ruffnut taunted.

“What? No!” He dashed away, seeking shelter atop Hookfang, who seemed to believe the Speed Stingers were coming back as well, even though he could clearly see the water. 

“Well, now that everyone seems to be back to normal…” One of Reign’s hand rested against my cheek drawing my attention to her as she looked over me furiously, clearly checking for injuries. I chuckled and nudged her hand, trying to assure her that I was fine. “You’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days, you know that?”

“I know,” I sighed, moving one arm to pull her close. “At least I keep you on your toes, right?” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh, that’s for sure.” Her sarcasm faded away, leaving her with a smile as I began to run my other hand through her hair, seemingly putting her completely at ease. “You’re lucky I love you.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh, that’s for sure.”


	14. Total Nightmare (Reign)

**_I’ve sold my free time to this book, but here we are… the last chapter for Season 1. Also, I’m about to drop a reference to the HTTYD books in this chapter, you’re welcome :) But, of course, I have to make some speculations for the sake of plot_ **

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A warm breeze lifted some of the shorter hairs from my shoulders as I pressed the spyglass further against my eye, undoubtedly leaving a mark on the skin. The twins waited to pull the lever next to them, anticipating my signal. Hiccup and Toothless had been gone for quite a while, and if they didn’t appear soon, I would honestly consider giving up.

Thankfully, a black blur appeared just on the horizon, looping around the cliffs before diving back down again.

“There they are!” I announced, removing the spyglass from my eye, which caused Astrid to laugh.

“Nice glass mark,” she teased, pointing toward me eye.

“Thanks. They’re all the rage.” The two of us shook our heads, smiling, and focused on the people behind us.

“Close the dome!” Fishlegs ordered. The twins, however, didn’t pull the lever like they were supposed to, instead almost seeming to get distracted by their own thoughts, which they felt so inclined as to share with us.

“And so, the drama begins.”

“One man, one dragon, one leg…” At least they took that chance to pull down the lever, causing the dome of the dragon training arena to start closing. “…versus one rapidly closing dome.” The cloth started to get closer together, giving Hiccup and Toothless very little time to get out of there, lest they risk getting trapped, or getting clamped between the walls—something I’d rather not think about.

“Yeah, no way he’s making that,” Snotlout stated confidently, crossing his arms as though he could be so sure.

My heart beat finally calmed as the pair shot out from the dome, right at the last second. Involuntarily, I began to laugh, both at the relief of Hiccup getting out of there and the joy of them proving Snotlout wrong. Hiccup and Toothless looped around us once, reveling in their victory, then landed on the wooden dragon head on the top of the dome, smirking down at us.

“All right, we’re up.” Snotlout motioned for Hookfang, his cockiness overwhelming.

“Nobody’s been able to beat the dome except Hiccup,” Fishlegs dismissed.

“Nobody ‘til now.”

“Guys, this was supposed to be a drill,” Hiccup sighed, still perched on Toothless atop the dome. “Do you have to turn it into a game?”

“Don’t we always?” I shrugged, enjoying the break this gave us. Hiccup opened his mouth to retort, but my words seemed to catch up with him, and he just gave up.

“Fair point.”

“’Twas once a drill.” I buried my face in my hand as Tuffnut began to drone on again. “Then it became a game. Now, it is theater!”

“Let the drama unfold!” Ruffnut cried, throwing her arm into the air. Snotlout and Hookfang headed toward the edge of the cliff, preparing to take off.

“Whatever it is, it’s my turn,” Snotlout grunted. The twins began to talk amongst themselves, possibly trying to figure out what would happen to Snotlout if he attempted this. Meanwhile, Hiccup and Toothless landed back on the ground, and the former climbed off and made his way to me. I rested my hands against the back of his neck, smiling as he secured his arms around my waist.

“Okay, you have to at least admit that was pretty impressive.” I laughed, though I was trying my best to keep it together.

“Yeah, it was,” I admitted. “But you know what was more impressive? When I did it last night. You know, when we were testing this drill out?”

“All right, all right, I’ll give you that one,” he teased. 

“Seriously, though, that last-second escape was amazing.” Snotlout and Hookfang took off, disappearing around the corner. “And don’t worry, I’ll keep the other part our little secret.” Although we were smiles and laughter for another moment, Hiccup’s expression quickly dropped, almost appearing sorrowful.

“Listen, I know this might not be the best time to talk about this but… about yesterday—“

I slammed my eyes shut, tilting my head back slightly. I’d really tried to just forget about the awkward incident, but I guess it was still plaguing Hiccup’s mind.

A couple days ago, Hiccup had received a Terror Mail from his dad, saying he needed the both of us back the next day for some meeting with the chief of another tribe in the archipelago known as the Meatheads, according to Hiccup. Apparently, their island wasn’t that far from Berk, but they never really saw much of them. Much like with my family, Stoick had a peace treaty with their chief, Mogadon, which needed to be renewed annually. I’m sure it had been mentioned to me at some point within the last couple of years, but Hiccup and I really weren’t expected to attend until just recently. I tried to blame it on the fact we were adults now, but deep down, I knew it had something to do with the fact that Hiccup was the future chief, and that I would eventually become the future chief’s wife.

Things had gone well for a while, pleasant conversations eliciting laughter and comfort for most of the evening. But, just like the Berserker treaty, it began to slip downhill during dinner. Of course, none of it was on purpose, but it was still uncomfortable nonetheless. Going into this, I had figured Hiccup and I would get questions about when we were getting married, but Mogadon had skipped right over that and jumped to Stoick’s grandchildren. I remember choking on my drink as Stoick began to stutter for what seemed like the first time in his life. Once I was able to speak again, Hiccup and I awkwardly stumbled through explaining we weren’t even engaged, so that conversation hadn’t come up yet. Disregarding my better judgement, I stated I wasn’t sure if I wanted kids yet, which caused everyone to go silent for a while, before Stoick was able to get things back on track.

For whatever reason, it seemed like everything about our future was coming at us at once.

“I’m just getting tired of the constant badgering and questions about everything. Like I said, we’re not even engaged yet, I haven’t considered kids, despite what I’ve said in the past. It’s just not something I feel like we really need to deal with right now.” Once again, Hiccup almost seemed disappointed for a moment, but he quickly perked back up.

“I know I really didn’t have anything to do with where that conversation went, but I feel bad.” I kissed him, trying my best to assure him everything was fine for now.

“It’s okay, Hiccup. We’re doing things our way.” It seemed like we had to remind each other of that a lot, almost as though at this point, we were trying to believe it ourselves. Still, I wanted to stand firm against the pressures.

“He hath emerged from the forest!” Ruff announced, drawing our attention back to the ‘training drill’.

“And what of his gall bladder?” her brother asked, taking on the same haughty tone as her.

“Impossible to say.” Tuff pushed down on the lever, and the dome began to close, just like always.

“The tension continues to build.” He slipped off the platform, but very quickly got back up onto his feet, resuming the dramatic speeches. “And time runs out for our plucky little anti-hero.”

“I love a ticking sundial, don’t you?”

“Indeed.”

“Guys, please,” Hiccup scolded, getting them to calm down.

Everyone watched anxiously, waiting for Snotlout to emerge out the other side, or for the doors to close before he got the chance to escape. It almost looked like they were about to pull it off at the last second, but Hookfang hesitated for just a second too long, resulting in them crashing into the dome as it closed. I grimaced, shrinking back a bit, then rushed over to make sure he was okay once the twins opened the doors. He laid still on the stone, breathing but seemingly dazed.

“Snotlout, are you okay?” I called out worriedly.

“Define ‘okay’,” he grunted, managing to sit up. Strangely enough, I noticed the dragon he’d been riding wasn’t in there with him.

“Where’s Hookfang?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. I’ve got some words for that dragon,” he seethed, getting onto his feet.

Everyone jumped at the roar of a Monstrous Nightmare, sounding as though it was coming from the other end of the island. Without a word, Snotlout ran off, going after his dragon on foot. Sure, Hookfang had a habit of fleeing on occasion, but the fact he managed to slip out without Snotlout noticing definitely raised some suspicions.

It wasn’t until sunset, when it came time to feed the dragons, that the two of them came back. Normally, we left the doors to the stables open so the dragons could get the fresh air they needed, but instead of eating, Hookfang kept trying to fly off, so we had to secure the place. Even after that, Hookfang just stared at the metal doors, refusing to even go anywhere near the fish offered to the dragons. Something was definitely wrong, but according to Snotlout, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the place he’d found Hookfang.

“Here, Hookfang.” Snotlout had brought some fish over in a bucket, attempting to offer it to his dragon so that he would at least eat something. Hookfang barely moved, only shaking his head when Snotlout tried to toss the fish up to him, which caused it to come right back down. “Ow! What? You love mackerel.” Growing desperate, Snotlout jumped up and tried to force Hookfang’s mouth open, but the dragon just shook him off, throwing him all the way over to us as our dragons finished eating. “Hookfang! Everybody saw that, right?”

“Yes, we did, my friend, and it was delightful,” Tuffnut chuckled.

“Good sir, can you re-enact it for us.” The twins clearly weren’t seeing the bigger issue here. Not that I expected them to, of course.

“No, I’m talking about Hookfang,” he snapped as he stood back up. “He’s acting weird.”

“How’s that?” Fishlegs smirked.

“He didn’t listen to me, he ran away, he spat fish in my face, threw me against the wall.” On the surface, that really didn’t seem any different from every other day.

“And this is weird how?” Astrid asked.

“You have to admit, that does kind of sum up your relationship with Hookfang,” Hiccup shrugged.

Frustrated, Snotlout chucked the mackerel at Hookfang in a last-ditch effort to get him to eat. Once again, Hookfang flicked it back at Snotlout, followed by him hovering in the air and beginning to bang his head against one of the support beams, as though trying to bring it down. He desperately wanted to escape from here, to the point where he was shaking the entire stables. Hiccup and I exchanged a glance, falling into agreement, then approached the confused Rider.

“If you’re coming to tell me I’m crazy, save it,” Snotlout sighed.

“You know what? You’re right.” My agreement caught Snotlout off-guard, causing him to look at Hiccup and I like we’d suddenly become conjoined.

“I am?” he gasped, seemingly in disbelief.

“No one knows your dragon like you do,” Hiccup reasoned. “If you think something’s wrong, lock him in a pen tonight so he doesn’t hurt himself, then we can see in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Snotlout nodded. “Maybe I’ll do that.”

I couldn’t bear to watch Hookfang slam his head against the walls, but we couldn’t open the doors unless he was kept down. Thankfully, Snotlout managed to coax him down and distract him just long enough for all of us to slip out so we could eat. Though he managed to keep a relatively straight face throughout the entire meal, I could see the cracks in Snotlout’s smile. Sure, we had a lot of moments where we didn’t agree, and we more often made fun of each other than anything else, but I considered Snotlout a friend, so when something was bothering him, I felt bad.

Hopefully, things would be resolved in the morning.

Clouds drifted by overhead, occasionally blocking out the sun for just a moment before allowing it to shine again. I was laying down on Shriek’s back, relaxing for a while as we waited for Snotlout and Hookfang so we could get started on today’s training exercises. They were taking quite a while, but no one really blamed him, given the odd circumstances.

“Hookfang broke out of his pen last night!” I shot up, eyes going wide as Snotlout ran toward us, panicked.

“Then this might be serious,” Hiccup theorized.

“I accept your offer to help in the search.” Before Hiccup could protest, Snotlout climbed up onto Toothless, causing me to laugh. Hiccup shot me a mock-angry look, while I just shook my head, adjusting my stance on Shriek so we could help out. “Come on, Toothless. Up, bud. Fly, bud.” He started to shake the Night Fury’s head, his frustration quickly mounting. “Do something, bud!”

“Okay, calm down, Snotlout. We’ll help you look for Hookfang,” I assured him.

“Yeah, you will. It was your boyfriend’s idea to leave him alone in his pen.”

“What does that have to do with me?” I questioned, trying to keep from going in on him. He refused to answer me, but rather than forcing it out of him, I just sighed and moved on. I flew along with Hiccup and Snotout and Astrid, while Fishlegs and the twins took the other side of the island. I saw Snotlout nearly knock Hiccup over at one point, calling out to his dragon. Just as Hiccup handed his spyglass over to Snotlout, a Monstrous Nightmare screeched, not really that far away.

“That sound, we heard that before Hookfang weirded out. Go that way!” Snotlout pointed forward, smacking Hiccup on the side of the head in the process. Astrid and I laughed, unable to contain it.

“How have they not crashed yet?” She tried her best to keep her voice low, so the boys wouldn’t break their focus from the search.

“Oh, I’m expecting it any minute now.” I leaned over the side of Shriek, focusing back on the pair riding on Toothless. “Sounded like a Monstrous Nightmare.”

The four of us followed the source of the noise, all the way to a cave surrounded by some dead trees. Sure enough, Hookfang stood in front of the cave’s opening, growling at us. It almost seemed like he was trying to scare us off, for whatever reason.

“This place again?” Snotlout groaned. “This is where I found him last time.” The moment Snotlout slid off Toothless, Hookfang began to stomp his feet and flap his wings-- a common intimidation practice from Monstrous Nightmares.

Everything became clear when, from behind Hookfang, I noticed movement. He stood in front of a slightly smaller, purple Monstrous Nightmare, who started to copy Hookfang’s roars and movements.

“Another Monstrous Nightmare.” I stared at the pair in slight disbelief.

“And that’s not just another. That’s a female Monstrous Nightmare.” Weirdly, Snotlout seemed pretty okay with this.

“A female? Now it makes sense. My dragon has a way with the ladies!” Well, at least the old Snotlout was back for a moment. “Must have picked up pointers from his master.”

“I doubt it,” Astrid scoffed. “She’s not dry heaving.”

“Okay, shush.” Snotlout stuck his hand up, silencing her. “Hookfang, time’s up. Let’s go.”

“Snotlout, you might want to tread lightly,” Hiccup warned. “He’s looking a wee bit territorial.”

“’Bit territorial’,” he mocked as he sauntered closer to the dragons. “Thanks for the advice. You said nobody knows my dragon like I do. When it comes to Hookfang, I handle my own business. Hookfang, girl Hookfang, what’s—“

I covered my eyes as the pair of Monstrous Nightmares lit their bodies aflame, not wanting to watch whatever they were about to do. Snotlout cried out in pain even after the glow of the fire faded, and when I moved my hands, he trudged back over to us, covered in ash and char.

“Yeah, he’s busy right now,” he wheezed, right before falling over.

“Reign, Astrid, could you help me get him up?” We nodded and each took a leg, hoisting him up and setting him on Toothless, causing him to groan in pain. “We need to get out of here, before things get worse.”

Snotlout came to on our way back to the clubhouse, but didn’t speak a word, barely able to lift his eyes off the ground. Even when he landed, he just scuffed his feet against the ground and refused to say anything. Fishlegs and the twins joined us soon after, left to stare at Snotlout following a brief explanation of what happened.

“Snotlout, it’s not that bad.” Astrid was trying her best to lift his spirits. “It could have been worse.”

“I fear not.” Tuffnut’s dramatic voice had returned at the least appropriate moment. “Hookfang made a decisive choice in that moment, and thus, acted upon it.”

“Mm. Showing, not telling. The number one rule in theater. And what better way to achieve that than by setting one aflame!” I shot a glare at the twins, trying to silence them.

“Kid all you want. I know that dragon. What’s in his heart and in his head. He’ll come back to me like always.”

“Uh—“ I could tell Fishlegs tried to hold that back, but it just slipped out.

“What? You’re gonna tell me he’s never coming back?” Fishlegs stuttered again. Clearly, he’d figured out what was going on, even with the limited information.

“Fishlegs?” Hiccup leaned over, trying to get Fishlegs to spill.

“He wouldn’t follow his training, he wouldn’t to eat, he ran away twice, he picked another dragon over you,” Fishlegs listed off.

“Don’t forget the fire,” Tuff added.

“He pushed you away. All the symptoms are there.” That really didn’t clarify anything, given we didn’t know what these ‘symptoms’ were associated with.

“Of what?”

“I think Hookfang is going feral.”

Hiccup and I gasped. That wasn’t even a possibility either of us had considered when it came to training dragons, but honestly, we couldn’t discount it. He’d found a potentially suitable mate, and maybe that took precedence over the training he’d gone through.

“No, not going feral?” Something told me Tuff didn’t know what that meant.

“The cruelest turn of events…” Ruff’s lamenting came to a sudden halt. “What’s going feral mean?”

“No idea.”

“It means that meeting this female has reawakened his primal instincts,” Fishlegs explained. “He’s returning to the wild.”

“Shut up, Fish-face.” Snotlout seemed to be deep in denial. “What do you know? Hookfang needs me.” 

“It’s nature, Snotlout. You can’t fight it.” He simply turned and stormed away, probably heading back to the same site where we’d left Hookfang and the female Monstrous Nightmare. This was a terrible idea, but at the same time, I don’t think anyone had the heart to stop him. 

I tuned out the twins, watching until Snotlout completely disappeared before everyone broke off for their afternoon work. The ramifications of Hookfang going feral weighed heavy on my mind as Hiccup and I washed our dragons in the stable, suddenly feeling the urge to give them extra love and care.

“It’s a scary idea, huh?” Hiccup piped up. “That one of our dragons might just one day go back to the wild.” Toothless purred and nuzzled into Hiccup’s hand, trying to reassure him. “You’d never do that to me, would you. I didn’t think so.”

“If it was going to happen to anyone, it’d be Snotlout,” I mused, scrubbing Shriek’s horn. “None of us have to worry.” Though I spoke with confidence, my earlier worries came flooding back. “Right?”

Momentarily, Hiccup and I became distracted by a sweet smell, coming from within the stables. It wasn’t anything we were used to, catching our attentions.

“What smells so good?” Hiccup and I wandered all the way to the other end of the stable, where we found Fishlegs rubbing some sort of oil onto Meatlug’s scales. I couldn’t help but just gawk, unsure of whether to speak or just walk away. Luckily, Hiccup took care of that for me.

“You’re giving Meatlug a rubdown?” He sounded confused and slightly disgusted at the same time… not that I blamed him.

“With her favorite lingonberry oil,” Fishlegs chirped, holding up the jar used to hold said oil. “Just letting her know she’s appreciated.” Hiccup and I just stared for a moment, before shaking our head and turning back around, getting back to cleaning our dragons. My mind began to wander again, trying to make sense of everything.

“You know, it’s really not that different from what people do,” I thought aloud. “I mean, people usually stop living with their families long before they meet someone they love, and we’re a monogamist species more often than not, but when you think about it, it’s really just Hookfang growing up and meeting a girl he might want to have a family with. Just, in this case, she might be one of many.” I shook my head. “I don’t even understand that. I couldn’t imagine having dozens of children with different people.” My words caught up to me, and I turned around quickly, meeting Hiccup’s eyes. I expected him to seem confused or scared, but instead, he just had this smile on his face. “What?” I relaxed as he made his way over and kissed me.

“Just, I love you.” I smiled back and took his hand.

“I love you, too.”

We swept up the stables and made sure the cages were cleaned, and by the time we’d finished and everyone was ready to lock their dragons up for the night, Snotlout returned, covered in soot again. He sadly trudged over to Hookfang’s cage and placed his hand on the bars, staring in longingly.

“Any luck?” I asked as I approached him.

“You give a dragon the best years of your life and then—“ He stuck his thumb down and blew a raspberry. “—it’s over!” He sighed, his shoulders falling again. “I give up. If being with her makes Hookfang happy, I guess I should be happy for him, too.” He managed to turn himself around and drag his feet behind him. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to lay down for a few… weeks.”

“It’s really not like Snotlout to give up this easy,” I sighed. It broke my heart to see this. I never really considered how entertained Snotlout and Hookfang’s antics kept us. It was sort of jarring to see the sudden switch.

“What can we do?” Tuff shrugged. “Hookfang hath forsaken him. I, too, would be depress-ed, if Barf and Belch forsook-ed me.”

“And if I forsake-ed thee?” his sister inquired.

“That wouldn’t bother me.” I shook my head, turning away from their ramblings and focusing back on the rest of the group.

“We gotta get him back in the saddle right away. We’ve got some work to do.” I turned to Hiccup, the ideas bubbling in my mind forcing a little smile onto my face. “How many Monstrous Nightmares do you think there are on the island?” He caught on quickly.

“More than we need.”

We barely slept that night, but we finally gathered up enough dragons to present to Snotlout, hoping maybe he’d be able to bond with at least one of them. Astrid went to go fetch him, and when he came back, he eyed all the wild dragons, confused.

“What’s this?” he asked, his gaze settling on the green Monstrous Nightmares.

“We stayed up all night wrangling new wild dragons,” Hiccup explained. “We figured, maybe with Hookfang going through… whatever he’s going through, this might help.” For a moment, Snotout smiled.

“Guys, I don’t know what to say.”

“Thank Thor,” I muttered.

“Except that you wasted your time.” I resisted the urge to chew him out, knowing he was going through a lot at the moment.

“Come on, Snotlout, at least try them out,” Hiccup encouraged.

“As awesome as Hookfire, Fangmaster and Hook Blazefang are—and yes, I named them already—I can’t look at them and not think of Hookfang.” We had to come up with more options.

“Another cruel twist!” Tuff exclaimed. “Snotlout rejects the new suitors. Be gone, pretenders, and never return!” He released the ropes used to keep the Monstrous Nightmares here and waved his arms, scaring them off. “I hast forsookenth thee.”

“I know you’re hurting, but we need you up there with us.” This was probably the only time we’d hear him say that.

“Dagur’s looking for us. We can’t be down a rider.” The thought of taking on my brother without at least one distraction honestly terrified me.

“What if you tried a different kind of dragon?” Fishlegs suggested.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” At least he was willing to try it out.

“There you go!” I clapped my hands together, eager to show off the other breeds of dragons. “How about a Nadder. Astrid?” Her eager expression immediately dropped, clearly trying her best to keep Snotlout off of Stormfly.

“Oh, he doesn’t want to ride Stormfly again. He already—“ Snotlout started to walk down the line of our dragons, pointing out exactly why they weren’t adequate for him to ride.

“Too small, too slow, too flat, two heads.” I wasn’t about to give up.

“You don’t like these dragons. Maybe we try some new ones. A Typhoomerang or a Timberjack? Or how about—“

“I don’t want to come off as thankful or anything,” Snotlout interjected, “but you taught me a lesson today, by offering me your inferior dragons.” I couldn’t quite catch on, mainly because I was still caught up on the fact he said he didn’t want to ‘come off as thankful’.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying if I can’t fly Hookfang, I don’t want to fly any dragon.” That didn’t make sense.

“How can you be a Dragon Rider and not ride a dragon?” Astrid questioned, stepping up to stand beside me.

“You were always the smart one.” Hiccup and I caught on at the same time, our eyes going wide.

“Wait, you’re—“

“Quitting, right,” he confirmed. “I shall be a Dragon Rider no more.”

“What?”

“Time to call in the understudy,” I heard Tuffnut mutter.

“Hey, how’s your Snotlout?” Ruff asked, likely addressing Fishlegs. I wasn’t about to let this happen.

“Snotlout, you’re just hurting now, that’s all. Give it time.”

“No, Reign, my mind is made up,” Snotlout protested. “I’m going to say goodbye to Hookfang, then sail back to Berk for good. It’s over.”

I felt like I couldn’t move, though I wanted to chase after him and say something. Strange, I had never really appreciated Snotlout’s friendship before this point. I guess there really was truth to the ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’ adage. Sure, he was annoying, he was clumsy, and his cockiness made me want to tear my hair out, but he was still a valuable member of this team. Not to mention, one of my oldest friends, before I even knew and fell in love with Hiccup.

“No.” All eyes fell on me. “No, I’m not letting this happen. _We’re_ not going to let this happen.” A new sense of confidence surged through me, and I whipped around, staring down my fellow Dragon Riders. “We’re going after him, and whether he likes it or not, he’s going to change his mind.”

Without giving the others the chance to protest, I hopped up on Shriek and took off, leaving them to follow a bit behind. We’d almost made it to the spot where Hookfang and the female Monstrous Nightmare had set up camp, when a loud, earth-shattering roar nearly caused me to fall off my dragon, surprised. That didn’t sound like Hookfang, and that _definitely_ wasn’t the call of a female Monstrous Nightmare.

This was bad.

“Hiccup?” He caught up to me, his expression just as worried as mine.

“That doesn’t sound good.” The two of us got to where Hookfang had been, only to find Snotlout standing his ground against a black and red Monstrous Nightmare, easily two times bigger than Hookfang.

“That’s a Titan Wing!” Hiccup shouted. “We have to help them.”

Toothless fired a plasma blast to distract the Titan Wing, then Barf and Belch shot down gas and ignited it, causing the large dragon to flinch. That scared it away for the moment, but we knew it would be back. Snotlout almost looked touched when all of us landed, showing our support.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“We came to convince you not to quit,” I answered, climbing off my dragon

“What’s going on here?”

“It looks like two male dragons are fighting over a female dragon,” Fishlegs observed.

“I’ve heard male Vikings do it, but personally, I’ve never seen it,” Ruffnut mused. This really wasn’t what we needed to focus on right now.

“The Titan Wing heard the female’s mating call, too, and was drawn to it.” Something about that still didn’t seem right. There was a key piece missing here.

“Ah-ha!” Tuffnut proclaimed. “A love triangle!”

“Wrong. Girl Hookfang has three eggs in that cave. Hookfang has been helping her protect them from giant jerk dragon.”

Of course! Everything fell into place.

“That wasn’t a mating call. It was a distress call!”

“We taught him a lesson,” Astrid stated confidently. “He won’t be back.”

“Yes, he will,” Fishlegs contradicted. “They’re probably the eggs of a rival. The Titan Wing won’t give up until they’re destroyed.”

“So Hookfang didn’t go feral after all?” Snotlout asked hopefully, as the Monstrous Nightmares nuzzled into his hands, showing their appreciation.

“Apparently not. He’s trying to establish dominance over the Titan Wing so he’ll leave the eggs alone. Wow!”

“I knew it.” I furrowed my brows, shaking my head at Snotlout.

“A true underdog story.”

“Yes! The apex of dramaturgy.” Hopefully, this meant the twins would drop that bit soon. I was starting to get real sick of it.

“I’m proud of you.” Snotlout scratched Hookfang’s chin, oogling over him. “Girl Hookfang just became an honorary Jorgenson.”

But, as expected, the heartwarming moment was snatched away, just like that.

“Uh, Hiccup? Remember when I said the Titan Wing would come back?”

“Yeah?”

“Well…” Fishlegs pointed upward, directing our attention to the Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare circling the sun a few times, trying to figure out the best point of attack. If we didn’t do something now, those eggs were as good as gone. And there was no way I was going to let that female Monstrous Nightmare lose her babies.

“Hookfang can’t take on that alone.” Snotlout jumped up onto his dragon, staring ahead with determination.

“He won’t be alone.”

“Neither will you,” I assured him

“We gotta do this ourselves.” That was definitely a Snotlout worthy plan, but I couldn’t just let that happen. 

“No! That thing will tear you apart. Saddle up, everybody,” I ordered.

“You heard Fishlegs. That Titan Wing will only stop if it’s dominated by Hookfang.”

“He’s right,” Hiccup sighed. I whipped my head around to stare at him in disbelief.

“But look at that thing. It’s—“ He grabbed my hand, trying to offer me a little assurance to calm me down.

“I know. Gigantic, scary, angry.”

“Bloodthirsty,” Tuffnut growled, clenching his fingers to look like claws.

“Thanks, Tuff,” Hiccup deadpanned. “Get him, Snotlout. You guys can do this.” I guess I had no choice. It was the only way to get this thing to go away.

“Hey, be careful. He’s pretty nasty.” Snotlout glanced down at us again.

“Whatever happens, promise me you’ll protect those eggs.”

We watched as he and Hookfang shot into the air, taking off just above the line of trees. For a while, they were doing well, firing shots at the Titan Wing and dodging attacks effortlessly. Hookfang was small, which meant he could maneuver easier. And right when it looked like they were faltering, the female Monstrous Nightmare fired at the Titan Wing, distracting him.

“Okay, Hookfang,” I heard Snotlout shout. “Time to play Beat the Dome.”

He had to be kidding. There was no way that would work, for several reasons.

“Beat the Dome? That’s his great idea?” I gawked.

“Whoa, whoa. Snotlout’s never beaten the dome.” He’d need our help if he was going to do this.

“You’re right.” We could just barely pull it off if we moved now. “Hiccup and Astrid, you’re with me. Ruff, Tuff and Fishlegs, stay here with girl Hookfang and defend the eggs.”

We made it back to the training arena just as Hookfang and the Titan Wing emerged on the horizon. We were running out of time, but at the moment, it was still possible. Of course, everything relied on Snotlout and Hookfang actually being able to beat the dome.

“Start the dome, now!” I ordered. Hiccup and Astrid pushed down on the lever, causing the fabric doors to begin closing. I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself as we waited for them to emerge. The doors got closer, and my heart dropped when they slammed us, sealing Snotlout and Hookfang in with the Titan Wing. “They didn’t make it.” 

The roar of the Titan Wing shook the ground, while bright blasts of fire illuminated the gaps in the fabric.

“Great shot, Hookfang!”

The fire wasn’t coming from the Titan Wing! Snotlout and Hookfang were using that terrain to their advantage.

“Hookfang’s using the Titan Wing’s size against him!” Hiccup cheered.

“He’s trying to wear it down.”

The fires became so intense, they caused the dome’s walls to rattle, as though signifying the end of their battle, then everything fell still and silent, not a dragon cry or a whimper from inside to signify who reigned victorious.

“Quick, open the dome.”

Once the doors slid open enough, the Titan Wing stuck its head out and roared, causing me to jump back. I was about to race for Shriek, when its head fell down to the concrete, its skin charred and its will to stand subdued. The walls completely retracted, revealing Snotlout and Hookfang standing proud.

“Now, that’s what I call domination. Boom!” Hookfang roared. “You tell him, Fangster.”

The Titan Wing managed to get to his feet, glancing back at Snotlout and Hookfang sheepishly before taking off, disappearing over the horizon. All of us were about to jump up and congratulate Snotlout, when I remembered we’d kind of left something behind.

“Let’s head back to the eggs.” Snotlout seemed to read my mind.

Fishlegs and the twins were beaming when we landed. The female Monstrous Nightmare was nuzzling something inside the cave, her eyes shimmering with pride.

“Guys, look! They hatched!” Fishlegs gushed. Quickly, we all hopped off our dragons and rushed over to the nest. The female Monstrous Nightmare stepped aside, allowing the people that helped her to look over her children. I sat down on the ground, and when I did, one of the little Monstrous Nightmares climbed into my lap. It was covered in slime from the egg, but honestly, it didn’t bother me one bit.

I raised an eyebrow as I looked up, hearing the twins sniffling above me.

“I know,” Tuffnut sobbed.

“What’s wrong with you two?” I sighed.

“Nothing.”

“You just don’t see enough happy endings these days.”

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the baby Monstrous Nightmare, who looked up at me with big eyes. I felt this warmth wrap around my heart as my eyes moved from the baby to the mother, who watched them crawl about with pride. She’d loved and protected them before they were even born, and now that they were here, it looked like she just loved them even more.

I made up my mind as Hiccup crouched down beside me, resting his cheek against mine.

“I want one,” I whispered. Hiccup moved his face away from mine and stared at me, confused. I suppose, given what we were looking at, that could have been unclear.

“A baby Monstrous Nightmare?” I laughed, shaking my head.

“No, no. A human baby.” His eyes went wide, so I quickly launched into clarification. “N-Not now! Definitely not now. But… someday.” Hiccup’s expression settled into a smile, and I set the baby dragon down as he brought me to my feet and pulled me against him.

“I want one, too.” He brought my lips to his, sighing. “Someday.”


	15. Team Astrid (Reign)

**_So, I’m going to do a little thing, and reset who’s narrating in this section. So rather than starting with Hiccup, we’re going to start with Reign again. I think it’s really important for Reign to narrate this chapter and Chapter 16 in particular, so we’re going to do that. Also, this helps with something I need to happen later on (I_ absolutely _want Blindsided to be narrated by Reign, I think it could be really cool)._**

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - -- - -- --_ **

The cold night air nipped at my face, causing blood to rise to my cheeks; it zipped right past me, stinging the little cuts and scrapes on my knuckles, but all of it was worth it. I hadn’t gone on patrol with Astrid in what felt like forever, and because of that, I’d completely forgotten how fast she and Stormfly liked to go. Despite that, we were able to do a thorough check of Dragon’s Edge and the surrounding areas, leaving no anomaly uninvestigated.

“Well, very good patrol, Astrid,” I smiled. “The Edge is secure.” Though we’d checked this accomplishment off, Astrid’s face still appeared wary, scanning her eyes over the ground with an intense stare. “Uh-oh. I know that look.”

“Where are all the Night Terrors?” she asked as we passed over a set of the dragon perches. “Aren’t they supposed to be on watch? They’re our last line of defense.”

It didn’t take much for me to figure out exactly where our sentries had gone, causing my hands to involuntarily ball into fists.

“Tuffnut!” I screamed, frustrated.

Immediately, Astrid and I yanked on our dragons’ saddles, getting them to flip and turn back around. The closer we got to our temporary home, the stronger the warm, yellowed lantern light grew. It beckoned me toward it, whispering about ending the day and just going to bed, but I had to take care of this first.

As we’d expected, when Astrid and I landed, we found the twins hunched over one of the Night Terrors, dangling a stick over the dragon and coaxing it into jumping up and catching it. I wanted to believe that the twins would understand why they couldn’t distract the Night Terrors in particular, but then again, they lacked the important life skill of common sense. It came in and out from time to time, but overall, they didn’t really use their heads.

“Uh, what are you two doing?” Upon hearing my voice, the twins whipped around, proud smiles on their faces. An air of guilt crossed Fishlegs’, while Snotlout remained stern and slightly annoyed as Astrid and I moved closer.

“What does it look like we’re doing?” Ruffnut countered, crossing her arms against her chest. “Dragon training!” Tuffnut leaned down and scooped the Night Terror up into his arms, causing it to squeal and protest.

“Aside from Hiccup, you would think that _you,_ of all people, would recognize that.” Tuff’s accusatory tone only furthered my frustration.

Right then, I heard the flapping of larger wings, and Hiccup and Toothless landed as I turned to look at them. Upon running his eyes over the scene, he shot me a quizzical look, silently asking for some sort of explanation.

“The twins have decided that playing with the Night Terrors is more important than letting them stand watch like they’re supposed to,” I huffed, jutting out a hip.

“Uh, excuse you, dragon training,” Tuff corrected, like it made any difference. “Prepare to be amazed, my friend. Okay, ready, little guy?” He tossed the Night Terror to the ground. “Shake!” In response, the Night Terror dropped onto its back and began to move itself back and forth, wiggling furiously. I rolled my eyes, annoyed that the twins had truly wasted valuable resources. “See, you thought it’d be a handshake, he’d put out his paw, but I taught him—“

“No, we understand,” I interjected, sighing. “I’m just not sure how useful a skill that is.”

“That’s not all. You wanna see him get my slippers?” Tuffnut treated that like it would somehow make this situation redeemable.

“These dragons are not our pets, Tuffnut,” Astrid argued. “They’re an integral part of our security system.” Despite Astrid’s blunt logic, Tuff completely tuned her out and kept going on the tricks he’d taught the Night Terror.

“He can solve math problems by stomping his foot, as long as the answer is three.” Thankfully, Hiccup decided to intervene at that moment, shutting down any more of this nonsense.

“She has a point, Tuffnut.” Hiccup directed his attention toward the small chicken in front of Tuffnut, happily preening herself and fluffing her feathers every now and then. At first, I’d been opposed to the idea of letting Tuffnut keep the chicken around, but she’d proved to be pretty quiet and relatively out of the way, and the dragons had learned not to try and eat her, so it wasn’t that big of an issue anymore. “And you have a pet already.”

Tuff followed his gaze, but just ended up shrugging at the sight of his beloved companion, completely unimpressed.

“Eh,” he scoffed.

That wasn’t good enough for me. There were factors Tuff was too selfish to consider, factors far more dangerous than merely missing an incoming fleet of predatory dragons.

“Dagur could park a whole fleet right offshore and we wouldn’t even know they were there because the Night Terrors aren’t on their perches,” I snapped, fear driving the images in my mind. We couldn’t take risk when it came to my brother; though he could be a bumbling idiot at times, he had a way of forming alliances and persuading people to join him. _That_ was the terrifying part.

“Lighten up, Reign.” I glared at Snotlout as he approached me. “Dagur doesn’t even know where Dragon’s Edge is.”

“Not yet,” Astrid cut in, her frustration beginning to boil over. “But if you guys don’t take this seriously, he will soon enough.”

“I say bring it on!” Snotlout challenged. “Let him bring that weak sauce in here. Hookfang and I will pummel his deranged butt.”

As I shook my head, the screech of a dragon drew my attention away from the lunacy I’d been smashed between. A green blur was frantically zig-zagging right for us, threatening to make impact if we didn’t react in time. I threw my hands over my head and managed to hit the deck before I would’ve gotten hit, as did many of my friends, but Fishlegs, unfortunately, didn’t seem to get the memo in time, causing the little Terrible Terror to smack him right in the face. Frightened by the sudden hit, he collapsed to the ground, struggling and flailing in an attempt to pick himself back up. Once he finally managed to pry the dragon off his face, he reached down and pulled the little note off. The longer he read, the more his pleasant expression dropped, causing my stomach to twist.

“What is it?” Hiccup asked warily. Fishlegs hesitated to answer, refusing to lift his eyes from the parchment when he finally did.

“It’s Berk,” he whispered. “And it’s not good.”

I stiffened, already imbibed with an inkling of what happened; I didn’t want it to be the case, but at this rate, it was all too possible. Hiccup’s lips were stretched into a thin, hard line, his thoughts evidently resembling mine. Words seemed to be caught in his throat, so I had to be the one to speak up. Gently, as to not upset him, I made my way over to his side and set an arm around his waist before I looked to the rest of the group.

“Get you dragons saddled up,” I ordered. “We’re leaving now.”

The rest of the group immediately scrambled toward the stables to get the saddles, while I remained by Hiccup’s side. His eyes were glazed over and distant, his mind in some realm of panic and worry. It wasn’t until I brushed some of his auburn hair from his eyes that he finally snapped out of it, staring at me like I was foreign for a moment before dropping his head to my shoulder.

Neither of us spoke a word, even as the rest of the group came back with our saddles. I flashed Astrid a thankful smile as she passed me Shriek’s, and Hiccup finally came back to reality when Fishlegs placed Toothless’ in his hands. By this point in our lives, we’d become experts at putting on dragon saddles, so all of us were able to get up in the air mere seconds after everyone returned. Every second for this flight counted.

Thankfully, we managed to reach Berk as the sun was peeking up through the clouds, the orange and purple painting the sky strangely ominous as thick plumes of black smoke rose from the ground of our home island. My hands balled up into fists, my breath already picking up as I scanned over the broken and smoldering buildings from a distance, while Stoick and Skullcrusher flew closer to our formation.

“Son, I’m glad you’re here.” There was a relieved sigh twisting its way into Stoick’s words, something I didn’t often hear from him.

“Who did this?” Hiccup growled, not bothering to return the formalities. “Dagur?”

Stoick’s lack of a confirmation told me everything I needed to know. My brother took his opportunity, and once again, we hadn’t been quick enough to stop him. I could already tell he was taunting us from his ship, laughing and reveling in his victory. The sheer thought of him enjoying something so brutal made me sick.

“It was a hit and run attack,” Stoick informed us, momentarily breaking my anger up with a bit of confusion. “Catapults and volleys of fire arrows. Hit a few buildings in town. Astrid, one of them was your parents’ house.”

My eyes widened as the words left Stoick’s lips. They hadn’t been my actual parents, but the Hoffersons had taken me in and raised me like I was their real daughter. There was a certain sense of detachment with me, but hearing of the danger Dagur had put them in furthered my frustration and anger with what happened here.

I followed close behind Astrid as she dove down, heading straight toward the childhood home we’d both adored. Metal and planks of wood were now decorated with dark spots where fires had been extinguished too late. Grey ash still fell from the air like morbid snowflakes, piling up on the grass and stone beneath our feet. I’d expected to find Astrid’s parents out in front, but they were nowhere near the crumbling remains of the building. Were they…?

Horrified at the thought, I reached over and grabbed onto Astrid’s hand, the two of us squeezing tight at an attempt for some sort of comfort.

“Relax, lass.” Astrid and I turned to our left to see Gobber making his way toward us, coated in the thick layer of soot. “Your parents are fine. They were at the yak races. I’m sorry we couldn’t save your house.” That did nothing to comfort either of us.

“If they had been home, Gobber…” Astrid trailed off, her eyes falling to the ground.

“But they weren’t,” I reminded her, trying to find some sort of positive in all of this. “It’ll be all right, Astrid.”

“Exactly, Reign.” Gobber was feigning his optimism as much as I was. “We’ll get this place rebuilt good as new.”

The entire time, my mind kept wandering back to what my brother had done. Let him believe he’d gotten away with this; he’d get what was coming to him soon. His ships were slow-moving, meaning he couldn’t have gotten far. When I got my hands on him and his men…

For a moment, I’d gotten too lost in my revenge fantasies, forgetting I had someone next to me that may have needed me more.

“Astrid, I—“ Immediately, she offered me a half-hearted smile.

“Go after your brother.” I shook my head, still impressed to this day that she could read my thoughts. “Take him down for me.”

“Absolutely,” I laughed. Though part of me still felt bad for leaving her, I needed all the ground I could get on Dagur.

I turned on my heel and ran toward the center square, finding Hiccup, Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, Stoick, and Bucket and Sven gathered around each other, handing out orders within their respective groups. From the distance, Hiccup spotted me, and pushed through the rest of the crowd. Once he was close enough, he reached out and placed his hands on my shoulders.

“Are you okay?” he asked, though I knew he thought that wasn’t really the appropriate response. “How are Astrid’s parents?”

“Fine,” I sighed, shrugging my shoulders. “I haven’t seen them yet, but Gobber said they weren’t near the house when it was attacked, so they’re okay. I’m sure Astrid is on her way to see them now.” I leaned into his touch, needing the comfort. “We need to find my brother _now_.”

I expected Hiccup to protest and try to tell me to put my head on straight first, or something along those lines, but instead he turned toward the rest of the group and threw tasks at them, stating he and I were going to look for Dagur. I stood there in slight shock for a moment, then called for Shriek. The two of us were about to take off, when Stoick’s voice halted us.

“It was a strange attack,” he said. “A single ship. It fired a few salvos, and then just, turned tail and ran.” That information only furthered my confusion about this attack.

“That’s not Dagur’s style. Why attack at all?” I thought aloud.

“Good question,” Stoick encouraged. Talking about this would get us nowhere, though it brought a strange amount of comfort to me.

“Tell you what: I’ll ask him when I find him.”

“He was heading north,” Stoick informed us. “That’s your best bet.”

Hiccup and I took off, heading out toward the north first. The entire time, I kept my eyes glued between the horizon and the water, scanning every little crack and crevice I could spot that a ship could potentially hide behind. Every now and then, Hiccup would try to say something, attempting to break the silence, but I just nodded or offered a short response, focused on the mission I’d set for myself. Dagur couldn’t just keep getting away with this, or at lease keep believing he had. He deserved to be locked up behind bars he couldn’t break free from this time around.

My frustration mounted as Hiccup and I circled back around to Berk, our search coming up completely fruitless. The sunset pushed on my discouragement, taunting me with the reminder my brother now had a two-day head start on us. I wanted to keep looking for him, but Hiccup managed to convince me to turn Shriek around and head back to Berk. I didn’t want to face Stoick or the rest of the village yet, so the two of us headed toward the old training arena, finding the rest of our friends camped out there as well.

When we landed, Hiccup and my eyes fell on Meatlug, who had her feet dunked into buckets.

“Uh, is Meatlug okay?” I asked, eyeing her with confusion.

“Of course, she’ll be fine,” Fishlegs assured us. “But all this taking off and landing is tough on her insoles.” That didn’t really clarify anything, but then again, I never really understood the dynamic when it came to Fishlegs and Meatlug. That didn’t mean it was any less sweet, however.

“Oh, okay,” I shrugged. “We couldn’t find any sign of Dagur, but he did have a full day’s head start on us.”

“How’d you two do on the repairs?” Hiccup asked the twins, trying to direct my attention away from what I viewed as my failure.

“Awesome,” Tuff boasted. “We fixed so many houses.”

“Yeah, but everybody was just so grateful,” Ruff added. “They just, gave us all this food.” She gestured to a table filled with suspiciously well-made food.

“They also gave us this furniture. They just left it in front of their houses for us.”

It took me only a split second to realize what had actually happened. Right before I spoke up, footsteps came thundering in behind us, causing Hiccup and I to whip around.

“Hiccup! Reign! It’s a terrible tragedy!” Sven cried, slightly out of breath. “Someone’s been looting the burned houses, taking food, furniture… anything valuable they can get their hands on.”

I cast a suspicious and warning glance at the twins, whose cheeks turned red upon realizing what they’d _actually_ done.

“That’s _horrible_!” Ruff declared, hiding a necklace she’d been admiring. “What kind of world do we live in?”

By that point, I was fairly certain Sven had figured out what was going on here, but I turned him around and started to push him away before he could say anything to or about them. The twins had to fix this on their own.

“Don’t worry, Sven. I’m pretty sure it’ll reappear. _Very_ quickly.”

I was about to chew out the twins again, when Stormfly’s distinct squawk sounded over my head, and I immediately rushed to Astrid’s side as she landed and slid off her dragon.

“Astrid, how are they?” I asked quietly, trying to shoulder the rest of the group out of the conversation. It’s not that I didn’t want them involved, everything was just still to raw right now.

“They’re okay,” she shrugged. “Their house…”

“I know.” I stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I grew up there, too. People saying it’ll be rebuilt just isn’t the same.” Astrid nodded along.

“Hey, Astrid, do you need a shoulder to cry on?” As usual, Snotlout treated the situation without any of the nuance or grace this sort of tragedy required, using it as an opportunity to take advantage of vulnerability. Quite frankly, it was disgusting, but thankfully, Astrid was still Astrid. She took hold of the arm Snotlout leaned against her and used it as leverage to get his feet off the ground and chucked him against one of the stone walls. “Pain.”

For a moment, a smile crossed Astrid’s face, satisfied with what she’d done before she walked over to the boy she’d thrown and offered him a hand to help him up.

“Thanks, Snotlout, I really needed that,” she admitted.

“You’re welcome,” he groaned as he worked his way back up to his feet. “I know my role.”

Most of the tension had dissolved at this point, which offered me some relief. Everything wasn’t even close to wrapped up, but at least there was some sort of resolution. The big, looming threat over our heads still kept the clouds dark.

“Listen up, everyone.” I directed my attention toward Hiccup. “Dagur was last seen fleeing due north. By my calculations, he could be heading out of the archipelago. So, we go back to Dragon’s Edge first thing tomorrow. We’ll use that as our base to search for him. Just go back to your houses, get a good night’s sleep.” Hopeful, I leaned back and rested my head against Hiccup’s shoulder.

“Thank you,” I mouthed, smiling at him. He responded by gently placing a kiss on the top of my head.

When I moved my head again, I noticed Astrid starting to head toward Stormfly, like she was going somewhere.

“Where are you guys staying tonight?” I inquired. Astrid shook her head and removed a fleece blanket from one of Stormfly’s saddle bags.

“I figured Stormfly and I would just bed down here.” She tried to sound optimistic about it, but I could hear the resignation behind her words. No way was I about to let her go through this on her own.

“What a coincidence!” I exclaimed. “I’m sleeping here, too.” I nudged Hiccup a little, trying to get him on board.

“Well, if you’re going to sleep here, then I will, too,” he laughed, pulling himself together.

“Why?” Astrid question, raising one of her brows at the two of us. “You have a warm bed and a house.”

“Yeah, but the way Stoick snores, sawing logs, you know?” I joked. Behind me, heard Hiccup snort, confirming the story I’d offered her. “Neither of us would get a wink.”

“Yeah, Meatlug and I were gonna stay here, too, just for old times’ sake.” I smiled as Fishlegs held up his own sleeping set, furthering the solidarity.

“Uh-uh,” Snotlout scoffed. “Nobody is having a sleepover… without Hookfang and me.”

The whole group finally got on board with the idea of sleeping in the Academy for the night, so Hiccup started to gather up some wood for a fire, while I went out to get some fish and bread for all of us to eat. Dinner passed with merry laughter and rapid-fire conversations—everyone’s attempts to distract Astrid for the time being—further tiring us out. By the time the sun completely disappeared and we’d finished eating, everyone started to fall asleep, leaving just Astrid, Hiccup, and I awake.

“Thanks, guys,” Astrid sighed, smiling in our direction. “This is kind of nice.”

“I’m always here for you,” I assured her. We both offered each other a nod, then Hiccup and I slumped down, drifting off to sleep fairly easily, despite the excitement of the day.

When the sun woke me up the next morning, Astrid was still sat up, slumped over her own knees in defeat. My heart broke to see her this upset; Astrid had her emotional moments, but overall, it took a lot to break her. This was such a simple thing, and the damage it had done was irreversible.

“I’ll finish packing up,” Hiccup muttered to me, gesturing his head toward Astrid. I nodded and made my way over to her, crouching down beside her.

“Hey.” Upon hearing my voice, she looked at me. “Did you get any sleep last night?

“Eh, I spent most of the night thinking,” she admitted, which was made clear by the puffiness and dark circles under her eyes.

“Makes sense,” I shrugged. “I can’t say I really blame you on that.” Astrid’s gaze lowered again, and she began to pick at some loose fuzz on her blanket.

“I just can’t stop playing out all the different scenarios in my head. The ones that have the worst outcomes are the ones that stay the longest.”

Sadness washed over me, compelling me to reach forward and pull her into a hug. They had been my parents, too, and the thought of something worse happening to them chilled me. It came up every now and then, but knowing that those images were constantly on her mind made me wish there was something I could do to just fix everything.

“They got lucky. So did you. That’s what matters.” I hoped that didn’t come out as harsh. “We’re wings up in an hour. Let me help you with her gear.” The tiny smile Astrid managed to offer to me faded away upon hearing that.

“Reign, I’ve made a decision. I’m not going back to Dragon’s Edge. I’m staying here, on Berk.”

I froze for a moment, still trying to process what Astrid had just thrown at me. This had come out of left field, and I didn’t believe she’d actually said it at first.

“Whoa! You’re staying here?” I asked, flabbergasted. “When did you decide this?”

“Last night, when I was talking to Stoick.” This idea gave her enough optimism to stand up and face me head on.

“We’re warriors, Reign.” I jumped, whipping around to stare at Stoick. I hadn’t noticed him come in. “We live by a code.” Part of me felt wary about putting my foot down against him, but at that point, I hoped we were close enough that he wouldn’t take things personally.

“I’m not leaving Berk defenseless again. I can’t,” Astrid insisted. Her judgement had been clouded by whatever Stoick had said to her last night. We needed her and her ideas in order to keep the Edge safe, and our numbers were much lower than Berk’s.

“Astrid, one dragon wouldn’t have made a difference,” I countered.

“I know that.” Her words came out dismissive, acknowledging what I said without allowing any of it to really sink in. “Reign, I’m gonna stay here and train new Riders.”

“What?” I almost laughed, the situation only further escalating with each new twist Astrid threw at me.

“An auxiliary,” Astrid stated bluntly. “A backup team for situations just like this.”

Though I hated to think of Astrid leaving us, her mind had been made up. She and I shared that stubbornness that kept us glued to an idea, so I could kick and scream and insist that she come back with us, but at the end of the day, she’d remain planted right in her spot. Not to mention, her plan actually wasn’t half bad.

“That’s, uh, actually a pretty good idea,” I reluctantly admitted. Snotlout crossed by in the background, catching Astrid and my attentions.

“I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation, because I was eavesdropping. If you need instructors for this new dragon-training deal, I’m your man. A Snotlout-trained rider will be able to anticipate his dragon’s every move. It’s like chess, except I don’t know how to play chess.” To demonstrate, Hookfang swung out his tail, causing Snotlout to duck back. “See what I mean?” Unexpectedly, Hookfang went back in the other direction, slamming into Snotlout and knocking him onto the stone. “Checkmate.”

“Sorry, Snotlout, but I’ll be doing all the training myself.” Having brushed away that annoyance, Astrid turned back to me. “This is something I need to do, Reign.”

If she was going to stay here, I wasn’t about to give up easy. Changing our plans maybe wasn’t the best idea, especially because I didn’t consult anyone first, but this called for a last-minute switch.

“Okay, change of plan,” I called out to the group. “Snotlout, twins, Fishlegs, you’ll follow Dagur’s trail north of the Archipelago. If you don’t find him, resupply at the Edge and keep searching.” Hiccup shot me a quizzical look, but with a gesture toward Astrid, he nodded and backed down.

“Reign, what part of ‘I’ll be doing all the training’ wasn’t clear to you?” Astrid huffed.

“Hiccup and I will just patrol the area around Berk, in case Dagur doubled back. You won’t even know we’re here.” I smiled a little as Shriek nudged my hand, vying for my attention. “Right, girl?” She gurgled happily in response. Astrid still appeared a little reluctant, but her posture had relaxed quite a bit.

“Okay, then. This all assumes anyone would even want to try out to for our B-Team.”

While Astrid and Stoick went off to tell the villagers about her team, I doubled back around and approached Hiccup, hoping he’d go along with all of this. When I approached his side, he immediately pulled me tight against him, placing a kiss on the top of my head. Both of us remained silent for a moment, swaying back and forth slightly to a silent rhythm as I attempted to fully process everything. I couldn’t imagine my life without Astrid close by. She understood things Hiccup couldn’t experience, couldn’t begin to comprehend, and I relied on her just as much as I did him, if not a little more. Though I knew who my blood sister was now, Astrid would always be a sister to me.

“What are we going to do?” I sighed, my voice slightly muffled against Hiccup’s chest. He remained silent for a moment, forming a response that wouldn’t hurt even more. 

“I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but… maybe we just let her do this,” he shrugged, though he sounded just as reluctant. “She has to work through this.” I shook my head, picking my gaze up.

“This isn’t the solution, Hiccup. You have to know that.” He remained silent, causing me to push away from him. “We both know her pretty well by this point. She’s going to keep assigning herself new tasks after she trains this team, and it’s never going to end. I just wish…” It was only then that I realized I’d been raising my voice, and in defeat, my hands dropped to my side. “She’s not telling me everything; I wish she would.”

Hiccup hesitated for a moment, stepping forward before moving back again. He seemed to be calculating what to do, but ultimately decided to go halfway between the two of us, remaining calm.

“When Astrid’s ready, she’ll come to you,” he assured me. “Somewhere deep down, I know you know that. But right now, I think we should go and patrol around a bit and get out for a while. You can ride on Toothless with me, if you want.”

Half out of it, I nodded and took his hand, climbing up on Toothless behind him, who purred happily. That made me smile a bit, slowing my thundering heart but not calming me. We made our way up to the top of the former academy, meeting up with the rest of our riders. As we all were about to head in our separate directions, the crowd started to funnel in, revealing quite a large group of people interested in becoming Riders. Whatever Astrid and Stoick had done or said clearly worked.

“Nice turn out,” I commented, genuinely impressed.

“Yeah, look at them, fresh-faced and full of dreams.” I turned myself to face Tuffnut, who had lowered down his dragon’s head. “Dreams that are soon to be crushed. Huh, Reign, were we ever that young?” I responded by rolling my eyes and turning my attention back to the scene under us.

“Snotlout, is that your dad?” Fishlegs pointed down into the crowd, showing off Spitelout standing proud and tall.

“What!” Snotlout exclaimed, leaning forward on Hookfang’s back. “Hiccup, you have to let me stay! I will get to make the rules. I will get to point out every one of his mistakes.” The crazed power overwhelming his eyes scared me a bit.

“Not gonna happen, Snotlout,” Hiccup asserted.

“You owe me this! The world owes me this!”

Though Snotlout kept shouting and raging, the rest of us took off, heading in our separate directions. Hiccup and I circled around the area surrounding Berk a few times, each completed circle pushing me to ask for another go around. I refused to believe my brother wasn’t within our grasp. There was absolutely no way he wouldn’t come back to revel in his spoils; he was just that stupid.

Hiccup humored me for a while, circling back around and swooping downward when I asked, but after probably the fifth or sixth go around, he yanked on Toothless’ saddle, bringing the two of us to a complete halt. Enraged, I straightened up as he turned his torso to face me.

“What are you doing?” I demanded. “We have to find Dagur! He can’t get away with this.” Hiccup refused to speak, only furthering my frustration. “What? Why are you just staring at me?”

“You’re not doing this for the right reasons, Reign.” Hiccup tried to keep his voice calm, in an attempt to bring me back down. “You’re doing the same thing Astrid is, just with a different target.”

My shoulders slumped, defeated yet again. I knew he was right, and I hated that. I acted like I was the right one in this situation, and Astrid was in the wrong, but there I sat, pushing Hiccup and Toothless toward something we wouldn’t be able to find. Dagur was gone, far ahead of us and likely outside the archipelago.

I had to let this one go. There would be plenty of other chances to find my brother and hand him the justice everyone else deserved.

“I hate it when you’re right,” I teased, causing the two of us to chuckle. “It’s starting to get dark. Let’s head back and call it a night.”

Astrid hadn’t given up on her regime the next day. I’d tried to stay with her in the Academy overnight, but she refused, insisting that she wanted to be left alone for a while. It worried me to watch her push herself further and further away from all of us, just to make it easier for herself when we all inevitably had to go back to Dragon’s Edge. Hiccup and I decided patrol was useless today, and instead, we perched ourselves up at the top of the Academy and watch over Astrid’s lesson for the day. The remaining recruits consisted of Spitelout, Gustav, Gothi, and Bucket and Mulch, which honestly didn’t inspire much confidence. But, hopefully, Astrid’s training would shape them into fitting Dragon Riders.

Their relaxed postures on their dragons immediately stiffened when Astrid entered the area, wheeling in one of our old training dummies from when we were younger. A wave of nostalgia washed over me, momentarily longing for when I’d been ignorant of my lineage, and all seven of us were thick as thieves.

“Today’s exercise is to dive at the target, do a barrel roll to avoid enemy fire, and then hit a target with a blast. Like this.” Astrid jumped up onto Stormfly and demonstrated exactly what she’d relayed a moment ago completely flawlessly, eliciting ‘ooh’s and applause from the trainees. “All right. Who wants to go first?”

Spitelout volunteered, his cocky nature no more contained in this scenario. He’d been given a Deadly Nadder, which weirdly suited him. The two of them worked well together, executing Astrid’s instructions well right up until the end, when he missed the target by a mile. Still, he managed to hit the actual body of the dummy, and if that were a real person, that shot would have sent them running. However, Astrid didn’t count it, and moved right along to Gothi.

The small, old woman had a hard time staying on the back of her Gronckle when it did the roll, which was only coupled by the fact that the purple dragon only flipped upside down and never came back up. Rather than panicking, Gothi used this to her advantage, and when the two of them came in close to the target, she kicked her legs out, knocking the training dummy to the ground.

“Yes!” I cheered. “Gothi, coming in hot!”

“Fail!” Astrid declared, much to my frustration. “To be a Dragon Rider, you actually have to ride on the dragon.”

Astrid barely gave Gothi enough time to collect herself and get out of the way before she picked the dummy back up and sent Bucket and Mulch in on their Zippleback. They were wobbly and unsteady, only making it halfway around the turn just like Gothi. They actually managed to spew gas out of their Zippleback and ignite it, engulfing the entire dummy before they hit the ground and began to spin around on their helmets.

“Fail,” Astrid sighed. I wasn’t really about to disagree with her on that one.

“Oh, come on!” Hiccup cried. “You got to count that.” I pointed toward the pair that was still spinning on their heads, their dragon refusing to stop flapping its wings.

“They’re not exactly in a good position,” I observed. “I have to agree with that one.”

It took Stormfly firing at the four of them to get the Zippleback to stop spinning, but Sven took his shot next, perfectly executing the roll but missing the target with his Monstrous Nightmare’s fire. Rather than giving up, Sven removed his axe and chucked it at the training dummy, hitting it right where the eye was painted on.

“Cheating. Fail.” I scoffed at Astrid’s assessment. She’d done that herself on a few occasions. 

“What is she doing?” I questioned, waiting to see what happened with the last recruit.

Gustav and Fanghook, being the most experiences riders, nailed Astrid’s challenged without any sort of hitch. I had to admit, I was impressed with the control he’d gained over his dragon in the time we’d been gone. Sadly, it wasn’t good enough for Astrid, who ordered him to try it again. They came in almost the same way, but right as the two of them fired, Astrid pushed the dummy out of the way, causing him to miss.

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Gustav protested.

“Element of surprise,” Astrid stated bluntly, crossing her arms over her chest, “key to any battle. Now, land and give me twenty.”

I shook my head, disappointed in what I was seeing as Astrid crossed the room, reaching for a box of old brooms.

“We need to start over. From scratch.”

“You see this?” I turned my eyes to Hiccup, who nodded vigorously. “It’s almost like she wants them to fail. At this rate, she’ll never be finished.”

Click. The solution slid right into place in my mind, securing what I’d been afraid of before she started her training sessions. She wasn’t going to work through this and leave, like Hiccup had tried to tell me, she wanted to stay here. Astrid needed that excuse to try and protect Berk, even though just her alone wasn’t enough.

We had to head back to Dragon’s Edge soon, and I wasn’t about to leave without shooting my shot one last time. Even if I couldn’t convince her, just leaving without trying would make me feel far worse.

“I know we have to head back soon, but I think I should talk to her,” I sighed, pointing down toward the academy. “Do you need any—“

“I’ll get your things,” Hiccup offered. “Just come get me when you’re ready to go.”

My heart warmed in my chest as I smiled at him. I leaned forward and kissed him slowly, unable to fathom how I’d gotten so lucky even after all this time.

“I love you,” I murmured when I pushed away from him.

“I love you, too.”

The two of us went our separate ways, each with our own mission to accomplish. Upon seeing me, Astrid dismissed everyone except Spitelout, who was still on the ground beside her attempting to do push-ups. I hadn’t seen him do anything wrong, but there was a period between when I was watching and when I came down that I could have missed something.

“What did he do?” I inquired, pointing toward the struggling man.

“He’s Snotlout’s dad,” Astrid shrugged, refusing to lift her eyes from her axe.

“Enough said,” I shrugged, trying to brush that off. “Can we talk?” Now, Astrid completely turned herself away from me, resting her hands against her hips.

“I would, but I’m busy.” Her words were cold and calloused, like she wanted to push me away. However, she should have known that I wasn’t one to give up easily. Astrid had left just enough of a gap between her and the training dummy, allowing me to squeeze through and come face-to-face with her.

“Astrid, I know what you’re doing.” No holding things back at this point. I had to confront her.

“Really? And what am I doing?” she challenged, rolling her eyes.

“You’re being overly tough on these guys. I saw what you did to Gustav.”

“The element of surprise?” Her tone was starting to grow louder and more hostile, but I had to remain firm on my ground. “How is that being overly tough?”

“It’s not that,” I clarified. “It’s… you want them to fail. That way you have an excuse to stay here on Berk. We both know what’s going on here.” With that accusation, Astrid turned her back on me again.

“You’re wrong, Reign. You’re wrong.”

“Astrid, I get it. You want to stay here on Berk and protect your family. I wish I could, too. But you can’t be there every second of every day for the rest of their lives.” I took a step forward, reaching out a hand to try and pull her into a hug, but the way Astrid shifted uncomfortably discouraged that. “Just think about it. Hiccup and I are going to Dragon’s Edge to see if they’ve spotted Dagur. We’ll be back in a few days. You and I can talk about it more then.”

I didn’t necessarily like how that had been left, but sadly, Astrid hadn’t given me much of a choice. Hopefully, she’d have a more open mindset when given a few days to breathe. When I tracked him down, Hiccup didn’t ask about anything that went down, instead trying his best to brighten my spirits as the two of us flew toward Dragon’s Edge. The long flight was suddenly extremely daunting, and the closer we got to our base, the more my stomach began to twist. Something didn’t feel right, but I passed it off as the lingering effects of my conversation with Astrid.

That was, until the two of us flew around to the front of the Edge.

A small armada of ships had anchored themselves right against the tall island, illuminated by the fires on Dragon’s Edge. I could hear the shouts of the men aboard them over the whooshes and whizzes of arrows and nets being loosed. Just barely, through the frenzy of it all, I spotted a very distinct crest painted on one of the sails in bright red.

I began to seethe in my place, staring down that stupid image of the Skrill.

“Dagur’s found the Edge,” I growled. “This is not good.” I immediately whipped around to face Hiccup, whose expression had begun to darken as well. “We have to find the others. _Now_.”

“Agreed,” Hiccup spat back. “If we go low and head for the tunnels, we should be able to avoid fire. But be careful.” I nodded, focusing back on the horizon.

“You, too.”

The two of us dove Shriek and Toothless down, managing to sneak down right below the boats before we were forced to reveal ourselves. I heard my brother’s grating voice shouting orders, and right before Hiccup and I were able to retreat into the safety of the caves, the ships launched thousands of flaming arrows, and a few regular boulders, right toward us. They soared over our heads, threatening to pierce and burn and bludgeon our skin, but we managed to duck into the tunnels and shoot up into the safety of our training arena. Thankfully, Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, and their dragons were all huddled inside, shielded from the attacks for the time being.

“Hiccup! Reign!” Fishlegs cried, relieved. I nearly fell off Shriek as the world around us shook violently, indicative of another strike on the land.

“Is everybody okay?” Hiccup asked, rushing to my side and helping me upright.

“Meatlug took one in the wing, but she’ll be okay.” Thank Thor.

“They got the drop on us!” Snotlout shouted, storming closer to Hiccup and I. “Hit us before we knew they were there. If our early warning system hadn’t been—“

“Let’s not start throwing the twins under the yak cart,” Tuff interjected while _still playing with a Night Terror_.

I flinched as the world around us jarred again, causing the Night Terror in Tuff’s hands to fly away in fear and perch atop Hiccup’s shoulders, purring worriedly. The more attacks that came in, the angrier I got. Dagur was out there, laughing and enjoying himself while we hid in the training arena like cowards. I wasn’t about to stand for that.

“We have to fight back!” I declared, my desire to fire at my brother growing stronger by the second.

“We tried,” Ruff shrugged. “It didn’t go so well.” Another blast nearly knocked me off my feet.

“Dagur has us pinned down,” Snotlout protested.

“With a dozen ships.” 

“And they have this catapult that can launch 20 arrows at a time.” Despite the nature of that revelation, Tuff had a mischievous smile on his face. “It’s actually pretty cool. I’m asking for it for Snoggletog. Think Dagur will give it to me?” At my wit’s end, I turned to Hiccup, silently begging for an assist in rallying the troops.

“It doesn’t matter, okay?” Now, everyone’s attention seemed much better captured. “This is our home! We’re defending it.” He nodded to me, signaling my takeover, and before I spoke, I offered him a thankful smile.

“Now, think. What’s our advantage?” I set my hands on my hips, hoping the others would speak up and realize we could do this.

“We do have the high ground,” Fishlegs admitted. Brilliant.

“That’s right,” I encouraged. That seemed to catch on with the rest of the group, who started listing off what they could think of.

“And good cover,” Snotlout added.

“And supplies.” At Ruff’s words, another Night Terror scrambled toward the twins, a yak drumstick in its teeth.

“And we have dragons!” The Night Terror screeched at Tuff in response, dropping the food in its mouth.

“Okay, that’s implied, but I like the spirit!” I smiled.

“We’ll send a Terror Mail to Berk for reinforcements,” Hiccup stated, already crossing over to his bag to write the urgent note. “In the meantime, we hold the Edge.”

I’d already climbed up onto Shriek by the time Hiccup finished the letter and set out the Terrible Terror, more trembles and shakes throwing all of us around. The moment the Terror left the grounds of the arena, the rest of us flew down through the crack in the ground that led to the tunnels, spreading out to cover the different areas the armada could reach. Since Shriek could flatten herself, the two of us decided to go with Fishlegs and take on the boats around the back of Dragon’s Edge. I laid down flat against my dragon’s back and clapped my hands over my ears, shielding myself from being stunned as Shriek let out her loud, boisterous roar. Since the men on the boat closest to us got no warning, they collapsed to the ground, unconscious, and Fishlegs and Meatlug swooped in and lobbed fireballs down onto the wooden ships, bursting them apart and causing them to sink. We would have to retreat back onto land for a while before we could go back in again.

The sun was starting to rise by the time the two of us were able to get out there again. While Hiccup and Toothless were taking down ships as well, and the twins and Snotlout took on anyone daring enough to set foot on land, this wasn’t going fast enough. I feared our Terrible Terror hadn’t even reached Berk, meaning I had to account for the possibility we’d be doing this on our own.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to dwell on that any longer. Right as Shriek and I were preparing to take off again, I noticed two figures coming over the horizon, heading right toward us. Truthfully, I wished Astrid would have had the sense to bring the team she’d been training, but her and Stoick definitely would be helpful.

With a renewed sense of confidence, Shriek and I dove down and blasted at another ship. This time, her roar was so powerful, she actually managed to blast away a good portion of the wood, causing the ship to sink. I wanted to revel in the little victory I’d achieved, but there were far more pressing things to worry about. When Shriek and I came back around the front of Dragon’s Edge, Astrid and Stormfly had been caught on Dagur’s ship, and the former was on the deck, swinging at my brother with her axe. Despite her frenzy and well-placed attacks, Dagur and his men managed to get the upper-hand on her. My heart leaped in my chest, pushing me to force Shriek to fly even faster. It didn’t look like I would make it in time, as Dagur raised his weapon over his head, primed straight for Astrid’s head…

Suddenly, a blast of hot magma shot down from the sky, knocking the weapon straight from Dagur’s hands and causing him to cry out in alarm. I released a sigh as my eyes drifted upward, spotting Gustav hovering just by the sail, a triumphant smile on his face. Never, in my life, did I think I’d be happy Gustav came in for a rescue, but there’s a first time for everything. Though I couldn’t hear what he was saying, when he raised his arms into the air, the rest of Astrid’s fleet came diving in, assisting Fishlegs and I in destroying boats and sending soldiers running. Gutav managed to distract my brother long enough to snatch up Astrid and plop her back on Stormfly.

This was my chance.

Without a second thought, I dove toward Dagur’s ship, tumbling off Shriek and onto the deck below. I barely gave him time to register before I yanked out my sword, swinging it in his direction. Dagur managed to dodge the hit and get a hold on his axe again, allowing him to attempt and slice into me. Neither of us quipped or spoke a word, just swung and ducked and dodged, and once I got the chance, occasionally kicked. We seemed to know that we wouldn’t be able to win today, but fighting for the sake of fighting was still somehow cathartic. He wouldn’t pay for destroying Astrid and my childhood home today…

Right then, I managed to swing my sword just right, nicking Dagur on his arm and causing him to drop his axe.

…or, maybe he would.

I took that as my sign to get out of there, calling for Shriek and hovering above the ship, where they hopefully couldn’t reach me. Looking around, most of the ships had been bashed into and were sinking, and when Hiccup joined me at my side, my brother finally started to retreat, shouting at the two of us as the shambles started to sail away.

“You’re a cheater, Reign!” he shouted from the distance. “You’ve always been a cheater!”

I smirked as Astrid’s Riders got in a few more shots, before all of us landed back on the Edge. The fury on Astrid’s face worried me as her team lined up. I pressed myself close to Hiccup, unsure of what would happen from here.

“You all disobeyed a direct order,” Astrid barked, her arms crossed sternly behind her back. “Whose idea was this little mutiny?”

Knowing this group, I expected everyone to remain silent, or even throw the blame at others, hoping to be let off the hook.

“It was mine.”

My eyes widened in surprise as Gustav stepped up, not only admitting to the fault but also dropping onto the ground, beginning the push-ups he presumed Astrid would dole out as punishment. Shockingly, after him, the rest of the group stepped up and did the same as Gustav, until all of them were seemingly at fault. Admittedly, that was pretty big of them.

Astrid appeared impressed as well.

“Okay, everybody get up.” Despite the little smile on her face, she still remained stern with her Riders. “What you did was dangerous, foolish, and completely not what you were trained to do. But it was also brave. And you worked together, as a team. I couldn’t be more proud to call you fellow Dragon Riders.” Motivated by Astrid’s kind words, her team cheered and talked amongst themselves. “Gustav, as the most experienced rider, I’m putting you in charge of the Dragon Rider’s Auxiliary.

“Oh, yes!” Gustav cheered. “Gustav! That’s me.”

“I’ll be staying here on Dragon’s Edge.” Upon hearing that, I stepped closer to Astrid, who looked back at me with a strange sort of smile. “After all, I can’t protect Berk all by myself every second of every day. And you guys proved you’re ready to do the job.”

“They did handle themselves pretty well,” I looked toward Snotlout as he approached, “for the B-Team.”

“B-Team?” Something about that didn’t sound right. It wasn’t an appropriate title for this rag-tag group. “No. This is Astrid’s team. The A-Team.” Once again, that sent the group into a stupor over the praise.

“But, if I hear you’re slacking off one inch, I’ll be on you guys like a Gronckle on granite.” It was only fitting Astrid ended this on a threat.

“We’ll keep the brooms handy,” Gustav laughed nervously. “Mount up, A-Team!”

All the riders but Bucket made it onto their dragons, starting to head toward Berk until they realized one of them was still running around on a broom. As they doubled back for him, Snotlout approached Astrid, and whatever he said caused her to throw him again, leaving me room to move in. The two of us smiled at each other, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, affectionately pulling her into a hug.

“I’m glad you’re staying here,” I admitted. “I’m not so sure I could survive everything without you to go to.”

“Me, too,” Astrid sighed. “It’s good to have somewhere to run when things get tough.” She paused for a moment, her eyes drifting toward Stormfly. “Race?”

My head dipped backwards as I laughed.

“Absolutely.”


	16. Night of the Hunters, Pt. 1 (Hiccup)

The soft, morning sunlight drifting in through the cloth on my roof carefully woke me up, creating a sort of glow against the boards. Beside me, Reign was still fast asleep, her mass of red hair spread out around her head like a crown. Every now and then, one of her brows would twitch, or her lips would curl into a smile, before she finally opened those bright green eyes. The moment she woke up, her gaze turned to me, and her peaceful indifference turned to confusion.

“Were you watching me sleep?” The scoff in her voice kept me from tensing in fear.

“Not for long,” I shrugged, propping myself up on one of my arms. Some of her hair had fallen in front of her eyes, so I reached over and brushed it away. Right as my hand started to move away, Reign reached up and grabbed onto it, setting our hands between us as she matched my posture.

Neither of us spoke for a while, just allowing the peace of a quiet morning on Dragon’s Edge to keep us in bed for a little while longer. Normally, by this time, the twins would be arguing and making a mess, or Hookfang would’ve set something on fire, but right now, for whatever reason, this was the morning where we finally got to just relax. Part of me wanted to suggest testing how long we could keep this going, but in the back of my mind, chores and tasks for securing the island were already trying to creep in. Still, as Reign leaned forward and pressed our lips together, it was enticing not to leave.

“We have to do… work eventually,” I sighed, resting my forehead against hers. Reign whined a little, protesting the idea. “Yeah, I don’t really want to, either, but I worry about leaving the twins and Snotlout to do their tasks without someone responsible watching them.”

“So get Astrid or Fishlegs to do it,” Reign groaned, pulling away and flopping back onto her pillow.

“That still requires us to get up, babe,” I reminded her. With a huff and a roll of her eyes, Reign finally pushed herself up and to her feet, motivating me to do the same. Quickly, the two of us got dressed and ate, then we started to make our way out the door. Right as I opened it, I grabbed onto Reign’s wrist and turned her to face me, causing her to raise an eyebrow.

“What?” Smiling, I leaned forward and kissed her. One of her hands moved to my cheek, lingering for a bit longer than normal before I wrapped an arm around her waist and started to walk out into the world.

“I love you,” I whispered, resting my cheek against her hair.

“I love you, too.”

We hadn’t gotten very far, when we ran into Snotlout, who took one glance at the two of us and pretended to gag. In response, Reign pushed away slightly, her cheeks turning the color of her hair, but I kept a firm grip on her hand.

“What do you want, Snotlout?” I asked, trying to get a move on.

“Astrid hasn’t shown up for her patrol yet,” he complained. “And none of us can find her. She skipped out on her guard duty!”

Immediately, I watched Reign stiffen, worry taking over her face. Astrid was the closest thing she had to a sister here on Dragon’s Edge, and the moment something was even the slightest bit wrong, she flew into her protective mode and sometimes forgot Astrid was still… well, Astrid.

“She’s probably just out on Stormfly,” I suggested, trying to keep anything from escalating. “Knowing Astrid, she’ll be back soon.”

Snotlout protested, exclaiming about how that wasn’t fair treatment, but I honestly didn’t care at the moment. Reign and I had our own things to take care of, not to mention Snotlout had tasks to take care of well. Throughout the day, I noticed Reign checking the skies and finding excuses to go to other parts of the island, each time coming back on her own. The day had dragged on to nearly its end, and Astrid still hadn’t returned. At that point, even I started to get worried. Sure, Astrid sometimes disappeared for a while, but never for this long.

Reign and I made our way to the dragon stables, finding Fishlegs there tending to Meatlug. While I asked him if he’d seen Astrid, Reign stood on the platform and stared off onto the horizon, watching a storm brew in the distance. The two of us came up behind her, hoping to keep her from doing something rash.

“Still no sign of ‘em?” I asked, resting a hand against her shoulder. She didn’t speak giving us our answer.

“They’re probably out exploring and lost track of time.” Fishlegs’ words weren’t exactly confident, but they could make sense.

“She’s never been gone all day like this.” Reign shook her head. “Not without telling someone.” I cast a glance back at Fishlegs, searching for something that might help her feel better about all of this.

“You remember when she didn’t show up for her own surprise party ‘cause she was setting up a defensive perimeter around Berk?” he laughed, the memory doing nothing to ease Reign’s tense posture.

“Yeah…”

“Yeah. Or the time she worked on her late night axe throwing and surprised Silent Sven in the woods.” Fishlegs started to trail off, the full caliber of that memory coming back to him. “I don’t think he ever recovered from that. Then, there was that time—“

“Fishlegs,” Reign interjected, sticking her hands up, “thank you for trying to make me feel better, but this is different. Something is wrong. I can feel it.” As if on cue, thunder rumbled over our heads, quiet enough to demonstrate the storm was still far off; Reign’s former fear of storms likely didn’t help all this.

“You know, if anyone’s equipped to survive out there, it is Astrid,” I reminded her.

“No, you’re right, Hiccup.” She didn’t sound too convinced. “You’re right. But we’re gonna find her anyway.”

While it was definitely rash with the storm close by, I wasn’t about to discourage Reign from going out to find Astrid. I had to admit, I was pretty worried myself, especially with the uncertain nature around all of this. So, while Reign took care of saddling up Shriek and pulling together some supplies, I went around to gather up the rest of the Riders, quickly explaining the situation to get them to come with us. The skies ahead were dark, and the sea choppy, but that made all of this that much more urgent.

We’d gotten quite a bit of distance between us and Dragon’s Edge, and still no sign of Astrid. She wasn’t on any sea stacks we searched, and all the small islands along the way were just occupied with dragons. It wasn’t looking good so far, but I wasn’t about to say that aloud—especially because Reign was likely thinking the same thing, and I didn’t want to cause her any further panic.

When the land masses disappeared, I brought everyone to a halt. The search would prove more difficult now, and there wasn’t much point in sticking together.

“We’ll go in different directions!” I shouted back to the group. “I’ll head south with Reign.” I cast my eyes to her briefly, waiting for some sort of approval; the tiny nod she offered would have to suffice. 

“No,” Snotlout protested. “I should head south.”

“And why is that?” Reign challenged, crossing her arms over her chest as some drops of rain pushed her hair in front of her face. Snotlout hesitated a second, intimidated by her sudden aggression, but he ultimately stood his ground.

“Because Astrid likes to fly south and she’ll obviously be expecting me to rescue her,” he stated boldly. Reign’s eyes rolled all the way back into her head as she turned back around.

“Like Hiccup said: he and I will fly south,” she snapped, clearly unwilling to wait even another second.

“Rain, wind, all of us splitting up, sounds like the perfect opportunity for a rogue sea beast to leap from the depths of the ocean and pick us off. One by one.” Once again, Tuff was going to get everyone all riled up at the worst time. Besides, we couldn’t waste any more time. I didn’t want to think about it, but by this point, Astrid could be…

I shook my head, chasing away those thoughts. She had to be out there somewhere.

“All right, gang. Let’s go find her.”

The rest of the group took off, but right before Reign and I were able to head south, Snotlout spoke up again, stopping us in our tracks.

“She’s gonna be so sad when you rescue her instead of me,” he sighed.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll tell her it was all you,” Reign deadpanned, her eyes rolling back again. A genuine smile crossed Snotlout’s face, and he even started to tear up.

“You’d do that for me?”

“No,” Reign barked. “No, of course I wouldn’t.”

Once she yanked on Shriek’s saddle, I turned Toothless around, and the two of us flew toward the south, our eyes vigorously scanning over the dark, churning sea below us. Cold started to seep into my bones, forcing out shivers, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as Reign, who looked as though she was going to collapse any second. We had to find Astrid, but it wasn’t worth putting her at risk as well…

The thunder above our heads boomed loudly, as though our ears were right next to a drum. The bright flashes of lightning weren’t promising, either. The storm was only gaining intensity the longer we searched for Astrid, and the intensity of the winds only made it harder for our dragons to stay on the right path.

“Astrid!” Reign shouted, her voice starting to crack with each cry. “Astrid!” Toothless sent out an echo locating blast, but once the sounds died out, he just shook his head. “Still nothing?” Reluctantly, I shook my head.

“She’s gotta be out there somewhere,” I assured her. “Let’s just get through the sea stacks, okay?”

We didn’t get much further out, when Reign suddenly stood up on Shriek’s back and dove into the water, completely catching me off-guard. A little too late, I reached out, trying to catch her and bring her back up into Shriek, but she moved too quickly. I stared down into the water, wrapped in panic as the surface remained without a break. The sea had to be freezing by this point, not to mention her clothes and armor would be weighing her down toward the bottom. Whatever had compelled her down there, or maybe even thrown her off Shriek, I had to—

Two bodies broke through the surface of the ocean, immediately eliminating the fear overtaking me. Reign let out a loud gasp and flailed her free arm to stay afloat, Astrid’s unconscious body wrapped up in her other one. Once she spotted them, Shriek dove down, scooping the two of them up and into the air, and Reign secured Astrid against her.

“Astrid!” she shouted, shaking the girl slightly. “Astrid! Astrid!”

The world slowed as her eyes opened, her breath returning to a normal pace as she smiled up at her friend.

“What took you so long?” Astrid coughed out.

“Oh, thank Thor,” Reign gasped. “Whew!”

“Let’s get her back now.”

The two of us immediately headed back toward the Edge, completely forgetting about everyone else in the moment. They’d figure it out eventually, and it didn’t matter if they got upset at this point. We needed to get her in a dry hut and warm before she got worse.

The moment we touched down, Reign jumped off Shriek and ran toward Astrid’s hut, taking care of her while I got wood for fire, joining them once she was securely tucked under layers of blankets. Reign sat in the corner of Astrid’s room, her arms crossed and her leg bouncing as she watched her, waiting for any signs of life. Toothless took care of the actual lighting of the fire, while I went over and grabbed another blanket. Reign barely glanced at me as I pulled up a stool beside her and draped the cloth over our shoulders.

“She’s going to be okay,” I assured her, draping an arm around her. Unable to give some sort of response, Reign simply offered a half-hearted smile and leaned against my temple, letting out a loud sigh. She was still shivering, but it had lessened quite a bit, which was better than nothing.

The door to Astrid’s hut slammed open downstairs, causing Reign and I to jump. The rest of the group made their way up to us, soaked from the rain with perturbed and angry expressions on their faces. Right as Snotlout opened his mouth to chew us out, Astrid shot awake, gasping and looking around frantically.

“Stormfly!” she cried, reaching her arms out. Reign lunged forward and crouched on the ground in front of her, trying to steady her panic.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay.” Reign managed to keep her voice calm and steady, despite the shake in her hands. “Just try to relax, Astrid. You’ve had a tough night.” Astrid waved her arms vigorously, quieting us down.

“No, no, no. You don’t understand. They were all in cages! And they had Stormfly.” My brows furrowed. What was she on about? We’d found her all alone, sure, but I’d just figured Stormfly got spooked off.

“Whoa, whoa, wait. Slow down.” Astrid paused and took a breath, moving her eyes to me. “Cages? What are you talking about? What happened out there?”

Astrid’s eyes fell back to her hands, hesitating to answer at first. It looked like she was forcing herself to speak.

“Dragon Hunters.”

Those two words made my blood run cold. I hadn’t heard that term in a long time, to the point where I’d been able to convince myself the position had become completely obsolete. If she’d seen some out there, that didn’t spell anything good for the rest of us. Not to mention, we’d have to get Stormfly back fast, before they were able to do whatever they were planning to.

“Dragon Hunters?” I swallowed, still attempting to come to terms with that thought.

“A whole fleet of ‘em,” Astrid confirmed.

“And they have Stormfly?” Reign piped up.

“Yeah, this big, ugly one…” Astrid’s entire body tensed up, her hands balling up into tight fists. “Oh, when I get my hands on him!”

“And, welcome back,” Fishlegs jokes, making an attempt at lightening the mood.

Taking that as her cue, Astrid jumped out of her bed and started to run down her staircase, only catching herself when she remembered that she didn’t have a dragon to ride, and when she realized no one else was following her.

“Come on!” she urged “Let’s mount up!”

I cast my eyes to Reign warily, but she appeared just as determined as Astrid. Sometimes, I swore those two were the same person.

“You can ride with me,” Reign offered, getting to her feet and giving her show of support.

By the time we reached the beach where Astrid had last seen the Dragon Hunters, not only had the storm completely cleared out, but so had the aforementioned group. There was evidence they’d been there in the form of trash and marks along the sand, but there wasn’t a single ship anywhere to be found, nor were there any dragon cages. All of us broke off and searched in caves, behind rocks, and through the woods, but there weren’t any hunters left on this island.

“There have to be some clues here somewhere. Something,” I muttered as Reign and I crouched beside an extinguished fire, trying to get a feel of how long it had been out. The rocks and wood were completely cold, meaning they’d been gone since before the storm.

“How many cages were there?” Reign asked, turning back to look up at Astrid.

“Remember all the cages on the _Reaper_?”

“Yeah,” I answered warily.

“Double it.”

I shuddered slightly. With that many cages, they could capture at least a quarter of the wild dragons in the archipelago, if not more. Even thinking about that… the bile rose in my throat slightly.

“We got nothin’,” Tuff announced as he and his sister returned from their search.

“Just a bunch of trash. Looks like these Dragon Hunters are also litter bugs!”

“There should be a penalty or fine for littering. I mean, am I wrong, people? What if everyone were this careless and inconsiderate? What then, huh? Where would we be then?” I shook my head as Tuff genuinely began to sob. The ideas he came up with…

“I knew coming here was a bad idea,” Snotlout declared with a scoff. “What did we hope to find, anyway?”

His pessimism came back to bite him a minute later, when he let out a loud cry and collapsed onto the sand. Tears began to stream down his cheeks as Reign and I rushed to his side, all the while he held up his foot and began to shout. After further inspection, I noticed a strange, green shard sticking out of his boot, catching the light in a peculiar manner. The way it refracted the sunbeams indicated it had been shaped and carved… but, for what, exactly?

“Ow! Something bit me!” he whined. “I’m allergic to sand crabs! They make my toes fan out. Ow, ow, ow!” Taking charge, Astrid stepped up and examined the shard in his foot, turning the limb back and forth. “Look at you. Rushed right over to help, didn’t you? You know what that means, Astrid.” She responded by yanking the object out of his foot, causing him to cry out once again.

Astrid turned it in her fingers, and I took note of the strange shade of green in particular.

“This is a Dragon Hunter arrow,” she revealed, holding it out for the rest of us to observe. “Stormfly was hit by one of these right before she was caught. I’ve never seen her act so out of control.”

Fishlegs extended his hand out, taking the arrowhead from Astrid for closer observation. Almost instantly, his eyelids narrowed, staring down the foreign weapon with an intense amount of scrutiny.

“Interesting.” He moved it closer to his nose, taking a strong whiff of whatever was on the point. “Unexpected.” I flinched and gagged slightly as Fishlegs licked the object that had previously been both in the sand and Snotlout’s foot. “Tangy.”

“Well, that could just be Snotlout’s foot,” Reign commented quietly, causing Astrid and I to snicker.

“Mind clueing us in as to what ‘tangy’ and ‘unexpected’ means?” I inquired once the three of us collected ourselves.

“I’m guessing it’s refined dragon root. I’ve heard that at high concentrations, it can overwhelm a dragon’s senses completely, making it almost impossible for them to fly.” Given Astrid’s description, it made sense, but to think someone would do something that despicable was heartbreaking.

“That’s what happened to Stormfly.” Astrid’s eyes drifted away, so in a sign of support, Reign reached forward and squeezed her shoulder lightly.

“Think about it. Just one quiver of these arrows could decimate an entire flock of dragons.”

I snatched the arrowhead away from Fishlegs to get a better look myself. This tiny piece alone could do quite a bit of damage—a prospect sick enough to send a shudder down my spine. I got so engrossed in the dark ‘what if’s, I barely noticed as Reign leaned against me, moving in closer to look over the carvings on the arrow. Something about their pattern sparked something in her, and her eyes lit up with a familiarity laced with dread. However, whatever she thought, she didn’t seem so inclined to share, and I wasn’t about to push.

“How are we gonna find her? We have no idea where they’re going,” Astrid lamented.

“Maybe not.” Now, Reign pointed to the design on the root, revealing a familiar carving of a fist. “But we do know where they’ve been.”

It took me a bit to remember where we’d seen that symbol before, but by the time I did, Reign was already getting everyone ready to head to the ship graveyard. It was far less threatening when it wasn’t completely wrapped in fog, but the circumstances made everything feel far direr than our first trip there. Reign, Astrid, and I booked it for the Reaper, while the rest of our riders quickly searched the other ships. Knowing the triggers for traps and precarious boards helped with navigating to areas where we hadn’t previously explored; sadly, none of that seemed to matter, because each little corner and barrel proved to be completely stripped of anything valuable.

“There’s nothing here!” Astrid growled, her axe securely planted in one hand.

“Just keep looking. We’ll find something.” The false optimism in Reign’s voice wavered slightly, but Astrid didn’t appear to take notice.

“What if we don’t?” The two of them momentarily halted their searching, turning to face each other from opposite ends of the room. “What if we can’t track them down? Reign, I’m—“

“I know,” Reign interjected, stomping out the train of thought before it could really get started. “But we have to stay positive.”

“I’m trying,” Astrid insisted. “But you didn’t see Ryker. He actually _enjoys_ hunting and caging dragons. And he has mine!”

Reign’s arm flew out in front of me on instinct as Astrid chucked her axe across the room, burying it deep in a shield hung on the wall. Pieces of wood went tumbling to the ground, slightly disrupting the nonsensical pattern painted on it, but nothing even came close to us. She tried her best to yank it out from where it had been thrown, but the weapon was pretty deep in there.

“We’re going to find her, Astrid, and the other dragons, too.” I could hear the frustration in Reign’s voice beginning to rise. “I promise.” Finally, Astrid’s shoulders slumped, and her anger began to melt away.

“Reign, I don’t know what I’d do without Stormfly.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll get her back.” Reign’s voice broke slightly, prompting me to wrap an arm around her waist. She looked to me, offering an affectionate and thankful smile. Today had been tough on all of us, and it wasn’t like we could just head back and start fresh in the morning. This remained urgent.

“Let’s go see if the other guys found anything.” I pointed back toward the stairs with my free hand, hoping that we’d have something to piece together.

Reign and I had just turned to leave, when a light, metallic ‘clink’ caught our attention. Astrid’s axe falling would have been much louder, meaning something had been in that shield. The heptagonal, bronzed metal surrounding glass was extremely familiar, and equally as useful.

“Dragon Eye lens.” It wasn’t like I really needed to announce that. I was sure Reign and Astrid both recognized it on their own. “We should try it out before we leave.”

I passed the lens off to Reign for safe keeping before I rounded up the others, spilling our discovery as briefly as I could. It was times like these I was grateful I took the Dragon Eye with me whenever we traveled; Reign tried to lecture me on how risky it could be, but now was a great example of why it could actually help us.

Sadly, none of our dragons brought up any results as we tried out their flames with the lens, meaning that either Stormfly was the key, or we needed a dragon none of us possessed. Toothless was the last attempt, but even his flame came up with nothing.

“Well, none of our dragons work with this new lens,” I sighed, defeated.

“If we can’t figure out what dragon we need—“

“I know. I’m thinking.” I cut Astrid off, hoping to help keep her from losing it again. As I stared at the device in my hands, I tried to think through every breed of dragon we could access, either back on Berk or close by. That would take way too long, costing us time we didn’t have.

“Yep.” At the sound of his voice, I looked over my shoulder to see Tuffnut staring at the shield Astrid had previously attacked. “It’s either the inside of a yak, or a Changewing in a cage.”

Even with the missing eye and the crack right down the center of the image, when I got a better look at it, I could make out the latter of Tuff’s suggestions, suddenly bringing the lines and odd shapes fit together into perfect focus.

“Tuff! You’re a genius!” I laughed, glad we’d unlocked some sort of semblance of a clue.

“I’m actually a ‘geologenius’,” he corrected. “That’s a geologist who’s also a genius.”

I held up the lens again. The way it caught the light almost made it and the wood it reflected onto sparkle; a sign from the gods themselves, I supposed.

“Looks like we’re going to Changewing Island.”

The entire group looked at me as though I was insane, but I couldn’t interpret any other meaning from the image the lens was associated with.

“This is a terrible idea,” Reign groaned, burying her face in one of her hands. “ _But_ , if it gets us closer to saving Stormfly, I guess we don’t have much of a choice.”

Thankfully, when we landed on Changewing Island, we were greeted with silence. Believing there were no Changewings around us would be naïve, given the whole camouflage thing, but if there were any, they at least weren’t trying to attack us yet, which proved slightly comforting.

“Changewing Island. Ah, such a peaceful place,” Fishlegs mused as he slid off Meatlug’s saddle. “Except for all the Changewings.” While he spoke, I reached into Toothless’ saddle bag and removed the Dragon Eye.

“Okay, guys, we need some glowing Changewing acid to shine through the Dragon Eye so we can see what’s on this lens.” I removed the little disk from inside the device and stared at it again, hoping this would finally get us our answers.

“Let me guess. That means we have to somehow find a Changewing, an ambush predator that can blend in perfectly with its environment, and milk its acid before it rips us to shreds?” The way Snotlout phrased it was clearly meant to dissuade us, but I wasn’t even close to wanting to give up on this. “Great idea, Hiccup.”

“ _Au contraire, mon ami_.” Tuff’s voice came disembodied at first. When he emerged again from behind a rock, he’d managed to paint his face green and brown, and had sticks in wayward directions in his hair. “In order to find a Changewing, you must _become_ a Changewing!”

Acting like it would somehow give him an advantage over a Changewing, Tuff began to sneak behind trees and roll from one point to the next, building up his momentum until he jumped over a set of bushes, which apparently were hiding a cliff side. All the rest of us heard were loud crashes and cries of pain from the boy that launched himself off the edge, finished off by a loud ‘bang’ of him striking… something.

“Such stealth,” Reign deadpanned, rolling her eyes.

“They’ll never see me coming,” Tuffnut’s strained voice called from behind the bushes. I shook my head, turning my attention back to the matter at hand.

“Okay, now back to a plan _not_ built on insanity…” Everyone looked to Reign, waiting for her to finish her sentence. “We should camp ourselves out by a watering hole, or at least some body of fresh water. We’re most likely to find dragons there, right?” I nodded, offering her affirmation for her plan.

“That’s a great idea. Let’s set ourselves up, gang.”

The nearest watering hole was, thankfully, surrounded by bushes and trees, allowing us to easily camp out without getting spotted. The biggest danger came in the form of a Changewing approaching from behind us, but hopefully, there was a low risk of that. Six of us sat behind the bushes, staring intently at the water for any sign of movement or irregularities in its surface or surrounding areas. Time marched on, giving us no results, but something had to happen _eventually_.

“Guys, this is taking too long,” Astrid hissed, leaning slightly closer to Reign and I.

“Changewings can be a bit skittish,” I reminded her. “We just gotta be patient.” For a brief second, I looked to Hookfang and Snotlout on the other side of the watering hole, checking to see if they’d maybe seen anything. However, Snotlout’s gestures indicated they came up bare.

“I’m bored,” Ruffnut whined, raising her voice a little too much. “Why are we just staring at the water?”

“All animals need to drink,” Fishlegs answered, “therefore, all animals will visit the watering hole.”

“Great. Now I’m bored, and thirsty.”

Right as I looked to the two of them to warn them to quiet down, I noticed strange movement against one of the boulders behind the pair. There was a disruption in the way the trees stood, and something formed a small outline against the sky, quickly scuttling behind the next hiding spot.

“Shh.” I pointed my finger to what I’d noticed, unable to deny it was a camouflaged Changewing when it brought itself out of hiding to drink, revealing its bright, red scales.

Reign and I darted through the bushes, keeping low in hopes we wouldn’t be spotted. The noise occasionally caused the dragon to lift its head, but it would disregard whatever it had heard a moment later, allowing us to just get within arm’s reach. Our remaining group managed to almost completely surround the Changewing without being spotted, when, out of nowhere, Tuffnut reappeared, completely stripped of his efforts at camouflage.

“Hey!” he greeted loudly. “You guys have any luck?”

Frightened, the Changewing whipped around before taking off, destroying our chance at getting the acid we needed.

“Ugh! Tuffnut, we were just about to—“

Astrid cut herself off when she looked past us and noticed that the Changewing… was flying in place? Why was it doing that?

It became more clear when I noticed a rope extending down from its neck, wrapped around a tree to keep it in place. The smirk Tuff wore indicated exactly who had done it—for whatever reason, he was knocking ideas out of the park today.

“Like I said, ‘see the Changewing, be the Changewing.’”

His plan didn’t work for long, unfortunately. Just a few seconds later, the Changewing wised up and spat its acid down in our direction; all of us managed to step out of the blast zone before we got hit, except Snotlout, who got a little bit splashed on his helmet. He began to hiss in pain and scream, taking care not to actually touch the green liquid on his head as the Changewing broke free and flew away. It wasn’t exactly what we’d been hoping for, but this would do.

As carefully as possible, we helped navigate Snotlout toward a cave, and once Toothless confirmed it was empty, we sat down by a wall, and I held the Dragon Eye up to the light. I tried my best to make out the symbols that appeared, but Snotlout’s constant movements made the light flicker in and out.

“Snotlout, would you hold still?” I sighed, attempting to keep my frustration in check.

“Easy for you to say,” he snapped. “You don’t have Changewing acid burning through your skull.” Part of me felt bad, but we couldn’t risk losing this little bit of acid we had.

“If we take of the helmet, we’ll spill the acid,” Reign explained. “Hold still.”

Finally, Snotlout obeyed, allowing the images of ships and lines to completely come into focus. Fishlegs took his time, scanning his eyes over the details carefully, making sure he interpreted this apparent map correctly. One little mistake, and we could end up searching for Stormfly in the complete opposite direction, and by that point it might be too late. We couldn’t afford any slip-ups.

“This doesn’t help,” Fishlegs groaned. “We’ve seen this map before.”

I took my gander at it, noticing one specific location details that helped crack this open.

“It must be a hunter port. It’s the closest to the beach where Stormfly was captured,” I observed. “Odds are that’s where they’re headed. After that, who knows?”

“Then we have to hurry,” Astrid insisted.

“Yes, please. Let’s hurry!” Confident that we’d gotten all our information, Snotlout removed his helmet by the horns and threw it onto the stone floor of the cave, revealing a bit of singed hair beneath, but not much else. Figures Snotlout would have been over exaggerating.

“Uh, but how are we going to avoid those dragon root arrows?”

I paused a moment, trying to formulate some sort of plan. The only thing I could fathom was risky, but we had a surefire out that would make this much easier. However, I already knew Fishlegs wasn’t going to like it.

“Funny you should ask, Fishlegs. For my plan to work, someone’s gonna have to get shot.”

He caught on pretty quickly, whimpering and backing up once the plan became clear to him.

“Yeah! Looks like we’re up!” the twins cheered, missing the mark. I just rolled my eyes and hopped up onto Toothless, explaining the plan to everyone as we headed out in the direction of the dock.

While we intended to strike at the actual base itself, we ended up getting our chance a lot sooner. About halfway to our destination, Reign spotted ships heading in the right direction, and the symbols painted on their sails matched up. Thankfully, the plan still worked as a preemptive strike, so we launched right into action, not wanting to waste another second.

The moment Toothless and I were close enough, he fired a plasma blast onto the deck of the ship dead in the middle of the fleet. Reign and Astrid were directly behind me on Shriek, allowing the latter to get in close to the man who presumably kidnapped Stormfly. He really was big, threatening, too, but if he was all brawn and no brains, this would be easy.

“I’m here for my dragon!” Astrid declared, pointing her axe straight at Ryker.

Using that as their cue, the other Riders swooped in and began to attack, taking care to, above all else, avoid getting hit by any of the arrows. The Hunters on the ships below were merciless in their fire, and as Shriek dove in to try and get Astrid a little closer, three of the dangerous weapons were loosed at one, only blocked when Astrid swung her axe to deflect them. Eyes wide, Reign pulled her dragon back slightly and hovered next to Toothless and I, clearly attempting to suppress her glare.

“You sure your plan’s gonna work?” she gasped, still trying to recover from the little scare a moment before. “That was really close.” I flashed her a quick smile, trying to stay focused on the plan.

“Fishlegs!” I called. “You’re up.”

Despite Fishlegs’ resistance earlier, he threw the three of us a thumbs-up before he and Meatlug flew down closer to the Dragon Hunters’ ships, pretending to do a bad job avoiding the fire. Fishlegs halted Meatlug in the right spot, allowing a dragon root arrow to pierce through her scales. Playing it up for the dramatics, they began to turn in circles, allowing the Hunters to catch them in a chain and bring the two of them down onto the deck.

“They got Fishlegs and Meatlug!” Astrid shouted.

While the Hunters took Fishlegs and Meatlug below deck—right where Stormfly would be—Reign, Astrid, and I circled around the ship, pretending to formulate a plan to break them out. Toothless fired a shot onto the deck to keep the Hunters from attacking us, but at this point, it was up to Fishlegs and Meatlug. We couldn’t see them down there, but I trusted the pair would be able to rescue Stormfly and get out of there.

Out of nowhere, a boulder was launched toward Shriek, causing the dragon to spiral in order to avoid getting hit. The Thunderdrum kept the two of them wrapped up in her wings pretty well, until she needed to spread them out again. The force of the movement launched Reign off the dragon, forcing her to start plummeting toward the ocean.

My heart stopped as I pushed Toothless to dive, forcing us closer and closer to Reign. She was trying her best to keep herself calm and called for Shriek, but when I took a second to glance over, Astrid was having trouble getting the tempestuous dragon under control. I’d just managed to get within arms’ reach of Reign, when suddenly, another chain shot out, catching her around her waist and dragging her onto the deck.

“Reign! No!” When I tried to get in close and get her, the Hunters increased their fire, forcing Toothless and I back. I felt something sick bubbling in my stomach as I watched two massive men grab onto Reign to hold her back. How dare they…

Everything happened so fast. Stormfly managed to break out from beneath, but Ryker appeared to be one step ahead of us. All of a sudden, Astrid and Shriek were plummeting toward the deck, and the twins and Barf and Belch got struck, forcing them into the sea, where the Hunters then snatched them up with a net.

Desperately, I wanted to just fly in there and get everyone back, but I knew we wouldn’t stand a chance. The breaking point came when Snotlout and Hookfang got shot, only saved from getting brought up with the others when Toothless swooped down and grabbed the two of them.

Though worry weighed me down, I turned Toothless and we headed toward the nearest island to regroup.

**_To Be Continued…_ **


	17. Night of the Hunters, Pt. 2 (Reign)

My heart hammered violently in my chest as I crouched down beside my poor dragon, breathing heavily from the impact of the dragon root arrow. Astrid had tried her best, but Shriek could be a difficult dragon to control, and somehow, it seemed like Ryker knew exactly what we were doing.

_Ryker_ … The mere thought of that man made me want to hurl. I saw the smirk on his face as our dragons got shot—the same one he wore now as he towered over all of us. If there weren’t arrows trained right on us, I would’ve taken my sword and run him through by now.

“Your pathetic tricks won’t work on me,” he sneered, only making my resentment grow. “I’m a Dragon Hunter! I know that Gronckles are immune to dragon root. I used your worthless escape plan to lure your friends in closer.”

I jabbed out my elbow as a Dragon Hunter approached me, attempting to force me to stand up. He grunted, caught off guard, but unfortunately, where I crouched didn’t give me enough of an advantage, allowing him to grab me just a second later and force me onto my feet. Still seething with rage, I reluctantly followed, leading the way for Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruff, and Tuff into a cell. The lackey tried to put a hand on me again, sending my anger past its boiling point. I whipped around, glowering at Ryker.

“Where are our dragons?” I demanded, not caring about the fact I could feel my throat ripping apart. “What did you do to them?”

“Oh, if I were you, I’d be more worried about yourself.”

My eyes flickered past Ryker, trying to get a glimpse at the cages behind him, when someone passed by that caused my brain to go completely haywire. I hadn’t seen that mass of black hair in ages, didn’t even know if she was alive or not. But the shimmering silver armor cemented it for me. My heart tried to jump out of its chest as I watched her walk by.

“Heather?” My words came out cracked and strained, relieved to see my sister but also worried about her presence here.

“No way,” I heard Tuff whisper.

“Run!”

My entire body completely froze as another figure popped up behind her, flashing a bright, satisfied smile in my direction. What were they _both_ doing here?

“Surprise!” Dagur sang, smirking specifically at me. “Did ya miss me? Of course you did! And, of course, you remember our sister, Heather. You were all buddy-buddy not too long ago.”

Heather crossed her arms against her chest, shooting that same smile right at me. Gods, they loved this.

“Hey, family is family,” she shrugged.

“Heather, what are you talking about?” My voice trembled now, still trying to collect myself. “I’m your family, too.”

“You abandoned our family, Reign,” she scoffed, “all for some guy. There was only one _real_ choice.”

Heather’s words completely gutted me, leaving me feeling like nothing more than a deflated balloon.

“I know it’s not Dragon’s Edge, but it will have to do.” The bars of the cell slammed shut in front of us, igniting that hatred again. “Enjoy your new home, _sister_. You’re going to be here for a while.”

My brain completely left my body as I slammed myself against the green bars, starling Heather enough for her to back up. All if a sudden, I was no longer in control of my own body, evidenced by the way I started to thrash between the bars, trying to get a hold on Heather and shake some sense into her.

I screamed and flailed as Astrid grabbed onto my arm and pulled me back from the metal. Her words weren’t discernable to me, but something about the tone of her voice brought my awareness back slowly. I felt limp now, like the life had been completely sucked out of me. My mind, however, was still working at the speed of a Night Fury, pushing me right back up to my feet. I paced the room for ages, trying to bring everything back together and make it make sense. By the time I could speak again, the sun had completely disappeared from the sky.

“Dagur is here?” Fishlegs trembled. “And Heather is with him?” I slammed my hands against my sides, turning to glare at him.

“Yes, let’s keep talking about it,” I deadpanned. “Trusting her turned out to be a big mistake.”

“Yeah. Who puts loyalty to their brother ahead of loyalty to their friends?” I whipped around, focusing my attention on Ruff, who shrunk back slightly. “And also their sister, I guess.” I shook my head, trying to keep myself from completely exploding again. Besides, we had bigger things to worry about than my unhinged family.

“The bigger question is, who are these Dragon Hunters and what do they want from us?” I huffed.

“You’re about to find out.”

Heather’s irritating smirk remained plastered against her face as she pressed her arms against the bars, igniting that uncontrollable hatred constantly simmering in me. My gut instinct told me not to trust her when we were younger, but all of that got brushed aside when I learned she was my younger sister. For a moment, I’d let myself forget who our family was.

“Ryker wants to have a little chat with you.”

The bars to the cell opened, and Heather strode inside, confidently eyeing me down like she had some sort of power over me. Pushing her luck, she tried to shove me out of the cell, something I responded to by planting my feet. I heard Heather let out a frustrated grunt, then she pushed me harder, causing me to stumble outside. Though I desperately wanted to turn around and deck her across the face, the axe pressed to my back swayed me otherwise.

“You’re lucky these guards are here, or I’d take your head off,” I hissed.

“You’d try,” my sister chuckled.

“After everything we did for you. Took you in. Taught you to ride. Saved your life more than once.” The further back I thought, the more my anger melted into a protective sort of desperation.

“And I thank you for that.” Her cold tone indicated she thought otherwise. “But I have to follow my destiny.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, turning around to momentarily face my sister. Her eyes were still that same green my family shared, a fear hidden behind them I always recognized in her; Heather never went anywhere without it. There was something different in her, something that made her easier to manipulate and sway, especially by someone like Dagur. If there was anyone to be angry at, it was my brother. Deep down, I knew this was his fault, and the Heather all of us had come to know was buried in there somewhere. 

“Heather, you can’t be serious. Betraying your friends and joining this Dragon Hunter scum? You honestly think that’s your destiny?” I expected her to force me to keep moving, but strangely, she just stood there with me.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be truly alone, Reign,” Heather snapped. “When you got lost, you found Hiccup, and Astrid, and all your other friends. I had no one for so long, until my adoptive parents found me. And after they died, I was alone again.” There was almost something sad behind her relatively frustrated tone. “Dagur is my brother.”

“Yeah, I think I got that,” I groaned, rolling my eyes. “You seem to forget he’s mine, too. You also seem to forget he’s the one that killed your adoptive family and made you go off alone again. I tried to be there for you, even before I knew we were related.”

“I trust him with my life,” she shot back, turning me around and pushing me forward.

“You’ll regret that. Believe me.”

Heather brought the two of us to a halt in front of a large, ornate door, crossing in front of me and knocking on it with her axe.

“Hm. Well, your concern is touching, but if I were you, I’d be more worried about myself.” I rested my hands against my hips as, from inside, a voice called to us, prompting Heather to push the door open. “Ryker wants information and he can be very persuasive.”

I straightened up slightly, trying to keep myself as tall and proud as possible as I stepped into the room. The scene that greeted me was extremely stereotypical: a single light hovered over Ryker’s head, casting shadows across his face meant to be threatening. My brother stood on one side of the chair opposite the head Dragon Hunter, while Heather took her spot on the other, all expectantly staring at me. Remaining collected and calm, I crossed over my siblings and sat down, staring down Ryker with one brow slightly raised. He remained silent for a moment, clearly thinking that would make me uncomfortable, but I guess all that interrogation training Hiccup and I had put the gang through way back when actually paid off for me as well. Granted, Hiccup was much less intimidating, for several reasons, but it all seemed to be working now.

“Your brother tells me you’ve got a base out here.” Ryker folded his hands against the desk. “If you just tell me where it is, we don’t have to go through this whole process.”

I remained stern and silent, leaning back in the chair slightly and running my tongue against my teeth behind my lips. He wanted to play this game with me, but that’d be a little difficult for him if I didn’t speak. Even when Dagur slammed his fist against the back of the chair, I refused to flinch.

“Reign inherited that familial stubbornness.” Something in the way Dagur’s face changed made my stomach lurch lightly, but I continued to be a stone. “Not unlike their leader, Hiccup.” He cast a glance to Heather, who smirked and continued his train of thought.

“She’s _very_ close with Hiccup. Aren’t you, Reign?” I kept my exhale silent as I glared at her. She knew Hiccup was a line not to be crossed, not to mention she had a better look at our relationship than Dagur did. “I suppose that’s a bit of an understatement, though. They’re close as two people can be—probably know every little detail about each other.”

“What’s your point?” Unintentionally, I snapped a little bit.

“He’s the one who rides the Night Fury, correct?” Dagur nodded. “The price I could fetch for that dragon…” I snickered, causing Ryker to turn his attention back to me. “What is she laughing about?”

“First of all, you can address me directly.” My voice was lower than normal as I leaned forward in the chair, smirking at him. “Secondly, you wouldn’t be able to get your hands on that dragon if you tried. Hiccup is _extremely_ protective of him, and vice versa. And, of course, you’d have to go through me as well.”

Ryker leaned back in his chair again, remaining silent and just staring me down. He likely thought that would be some sort of intimidation tactic, the silence somehow bribing me into spilling, but I just copied his body language, returning the intense glare. The two of us engaged in a match of who could be silent longer, and I wasn’t quite sure how much time had passed when he realized neither of us was losing.

I remained completely still as Heather suddenly brought her axe down in front of my face, panting heavily and baring her teeth at me. Her intentions were obvious, but I could only muster and eye roll and an unamused glance at her; it was already an old, antiquated move, but the fact it was coming from my younger sister made it that much more annoying.

“Seriously?” I scoffed. “You thought that would work on me? You know me, Heather.”

I watched all three facial expressions darken a bit, adding fuel to my own fire. There was something satisfying about this—forcing them to rework their tactics and scramble to try and get answers out of me. Dagur, in particular, looked like he was about to throw himself out the porthole.

“This isn’t getting you closer to leaving,” Ryker grunted. “You’re going to tell me where your base is, no matter how long it takes.”

Our battle continued for several hours, neither side willing to relent. I never allowed myself to speak much, but then again, neither did Ryker. After our brief conversations near the beginning, he kept his mouth shut, opting instead to just stare me down. From that moment on, it was just Dagur and Heather teaming up on me. Trouble was, I’d never viewed my brother as anything but a joke, and Heather wasn’t exactly the best at intimidation, so they weren’t getting any closer for a while. I didn’t start to crack until the sun began to rise outside. Even if my brother and sister weren’t great at interrogation, they certainly knew how to wear me down, purely through annoyance and amusement. I liked to think I could keep my wits about me constantly, but exhaustion proved to be the thing that would take me down. Unfortunately, Ryker picked up on that, and slowly, I began to spill about Dragon’s Edge, completely unconsciously.

Defeated, I was escorted back to the cell where the rest of my friends were sleeping. Once the door opened, they all immediately sprung up and surrounded me, all eyeing me worriedly.

“Reign, are you okay?” Fishlegs asked with a trembling voice.

“Just tired,” I sighed. “They questioned me all night. Wouldn’t let me sleep.” I shook my head, slumping against the bars as I attempted to wake myself back up.

“They?” I crossed my arms against my chest, the recent memory only bringing back more annoyance.

“Dagur and Heather, mostly. That Ryker guy doesn’t say much. He just… stares. Although, he _does_ play the intimidation game well.”

“Yeah, but you hung tough,” Ruffnut stated confidently from the floor. “You didn’t crack. You never talked. Way to go, Reign.”

I averted my gaze momentarily, attempting to be sorry for my actions. If the guards caught onto what I’d done, no doubt they’d bring me back to Ryker and my family and run me through another round of questioning; I didn’t mind the interrogation again, mainly because I knew I could withstand again, but I _definitely_ didn’t want to have to be put in the same room with Dagur and Heather again.

“Actually, I did talk.” Ruff sat up abruptly and raised an eyebrow at me, frustrated and unamused.

“Way to go, Reign,” she muttered, this time completely deadpan.

“I told Ryker what he wanted to know. The location of the Dragon Eye.” Momentarily, I glanced back, making sure the guards were still within earshot. Though I’d already told Ryker this, I wanted to make sure it was reinforced.

“They’re after the Dragon Eye?” Astrid asked as she moved to stand next to me.

“It’s important to the Dragon Hunters. They’ve been looking for it for a long time,” I informed my friends.

“And where did you tell them it was?” Given the twins’ nature, I was impressed Ruffnut seemed to be throwing me a bone.

“Back at Dragon’s Edge where it’s being guarded by all the other Riders we left behind.” Maybe the shouting of that last part was a little too much, but it was two-fold; I had to convince both the Hunters and the other Riders to go along with the story.

“What?” Tuffnut scoffed. “No one’s—“

“Supposed to know about it,” I emphasized, gesticulating in a desperate attempt to get the twins to catch on. They were the biggest problem in all this.

Thankfully, only a second later, Astrid stepped into the conversation, supporting me like she always had.

“Yeah, Dragon’s Edge is like a fortress. Lots of Dragon Riders.” I flashed her a smile as she winked at me.

“Under the command of Captain Gustav.” Astrid, Fishlegs, and I had to hold back our laughter at that thought. There was something so horrifically hilarious about the thought of Gustav as the captain of anything, let alone a fleet of Dragon Riders manning dangerous, large, fire-breathing reptiles.

“Wait. ‘Captain Gustav?’ He outranks me?” I rolled my eyes and crouched down a little closer to the twins, trying to keep the guards from overhearing what I said next.

“It was the only thing I could think of to keep them from taking over Dragon’s Edge,” I hissed.

“Ha!” I jumped and tried to shush Ruffnut’s boisterous exclamation. “They bought it?”

“For now. Eventually, Ryker will send someone there to check it out.”

“You bought us time,” Fishlegs declared, smirking.

“Exactly,” I nodded. “We need to get out of here before they find out I was bluffing. Dagur helped boost the believability of my story by talking about his encounter with the A-Team, but he’s not exactly the smartest man, so I’m not so sure Ryker believed him. We have to get out of here ASAP. Any ideas?”

“Way ahead of you. I have the perfect plan.” Instinctually, I didn’t want to trust Tuffnut, given his track record, but yesterday he actually came up with some pretty genius ideas. Maybe he had something worth listening to.

All that faith went out the window when he proudly held up a mug.

“We tunnel out.” Only furthering the ridiculousness, Tuff began to scrape against the wood boards with the vessel.

“Through the boat?” I groaned, my hands plastered against my hips.

“Into the middle of the sea?” Astrid sounded just about as done with this as I was.

“Exactly!” Tuff’s confidence remained unwavering. “They will never see it coming. Even I won’t! Especially because I don’t know how to swim. Okay, mental note, learn how to swim. By tomorrow, or next week.”

I turned to Astrid and Fishlegs, my jaw slightly agape, and the three of us shrugged. If this kept Tuffnut entertained and out of our way, I’d take it for now. I had my two best resources beside me, anyway.

“Okay, so in terms of an actual plan…” I tried to conjure up something, _anything_ , but all my brain kept giving me was the screams of exhaustion. Not even a semblance of a plan wanted to present itself. “I’m sorry, guys. I can’t think of anything. Dagur and Heather really wore me out.”

Astrid slid a little closer and offered me a hug, eliciting a sigh of relief from me. Astrid had been there to support me before I even got to know Hiccup, and I hoped she’d be there for me for the rest of our lives. Heather was my blood relative, sure, but Astrid was more of a sister to me than she ever would be. After this—even if deep down, I knew it was all manipulation from Dagur—she was dead to me.

Sad that my entire blood family wasn’t a source I could rely on. But, then again, what did I expect?

Our attentions were drawn away at the sound of grunting and struggling, bringing us to look ahead of us. Fishlegs was attempting to rend the mug from Tuffnut’s grasp, creating chaos between the two of them. Frustrated, I rolled my eyes and turned back around, now simply relying on Astrid for ideas. While everyone started to throw some around, none of them struck gold, and most were just flat-out awful.

“How about this?” I turned back to Tuff, the mug no longer in his possession. “We set our cell on fire, and—“

“Uh, no!” Fishlegs shouted.

“I have an idea,” Ruffnut piped up. “We—“

“How about psychological warfare?” Fishlegs suggested. “We learn our guards’ names. Get them to like us. And eventually, they’ll lower their guard and…”

“Boring!” Tuffnut yawned, shutting the idea down. I had to agree with him on that one—that plan would take _far_ too long.

“What if—“

“Acid!” Tuff cried, without thinking about where we would possibly find acid in the middle of the ocean.

“Okay, fine. Shutting down the Ruffnut idea farm,” the female Viking grumbled. “No milk served here.”

“But the Tuffnut idea farm has a mighty fine harvest. We use acid to cut through the bars!” I rolled my eyes again, reaching my breaking point with the twins.

“And where do we get the acid?” I proposed, stumping the male twin.

“I’m still working on that,” he admitted.

“That plan won’t work anymore than your ‘Ruffnut marries the guard, divorces him and gets the key in the settlement’ plan. Which, by the way, is so creepy and degrading for so many reasons.”

I turned my eyes to everyone else, hoping at least Astrid had come up with something, but they all just shrugged, leaving us bone-dry. I hit my head back against the bars, tired and frustrated, when Heather’s voice caused me to whip right back around.

“Ryker wants to see you,” she declared, her eyes oddly settled on Fishlegs. Had they figured out the easiest one of us to crack this early on?

“Me?” the subject questioned, pointing right at himself.

“No, all of you. Let’s go.” That wasn’t a good sign.

I allowed everyone else to exit the cell before me, and on my way out, I took care to lean just a little too far to the left, jabbing my elbow into her side. She grunted, the air flying out of her lungs for a second, but she quickly collected herself and turned to glare daggers in my direction. Rather than humoring her or feeding into the silent war, I merely sidled up closer to Astrid, making a show of who I trusted more. Her eyes remained glued to me as she approached the doorway to Ryker’s chamber, where Dagur was already situated. She issued that same knock on the door from earlier, and only a moment later, Ryker emerged, smirking and glaring down at us like he’d already won.

“I am Ryker,” he announced, as though we didn’t already know. “This is my ship. You are my prisoners. And your dragons are now my dragons.” He stepped back, allowing someone else to take the floor.

“And how they get treated is entirely up to you.” Dagur extended his arms out, lilting his voice like this was some sort of game—which, to him, this probably was.

The five of us remained in place as Ryker turned and headed into the next room over, only complying once one of the guards pushed the twins, creating a ripple effect that moved all of us along. I kept my horror contained within me as we stepped in between the rows of cages, completely filled up with dragons. Nadders, Monstrous Nightmares, and even a Changewing started out the line of prisoners, eventually coming to a halt in front of Meatlug, who was being fed various rocks.

“Meatlug!” Fishlegs cried, sounding as though he was genuinely in pain. Upon hearing his voice, she looked to her rider for a moment, only brought back to her slavery when a lackey pulled on one of her chains, startling her.

“This Gronckle is being very helpful,” Ryker laughed.

“Her name is Meatlug,” Fishlegs snapped back.

“I don’t care. All I care is that it makes me metal, all day and all night.” In time with Ryker’s words, Meatlug barfed up some magma, positioned to be cooled correctly.

I stared down my brother’s and sister’s backs as they pushed Fishlegs along, leading us to the next dragon, the one we’d been trying to rescue this entire time. One of the lackeys slammed down a weapon, startling Stormfly, which caused her to shoot out spines into another lackey’s shield.

“Hm. Perfect. Razor sharp tips for our spears and ballistas.” Another one flew directly at Ryker, but he managed to catch it before it pierced any flesh.

“You can’t do that to her,” Astrid barked, stepping closer to the head hunter. I watched her with caution, but wasn’t about to hold her back from bearing down on him.

“Oh, I can.” I tensed as he pointed the spine right at Astrid’s neck. “And I will.”

My hands balled up into fists when we passed by to the next cell, watching as two lackeys got up in Shriek’s face and started to bang down weapons against the ground. Though she was hard of hearing, it still made her feel intimidated, and all of us were only saved from the magnitude of her sonic boom by spotting the telltale of her rearing back slightly, allowing everyone to cover their ears before she screamed.

“This Thunderdrum’s got a powerful roar.” I already knew this, and of course, Ryker understood that. “She’ll be useful in battle. Once we figure out what triggers her to kill.”

I glowered at the man, my buttons officially pushed. Shriek was tempestuous and assertive, but she wasn’t a killer, and she never would be. The Hunters could push her to her brink and she wouldn’t break, but the mere thought of the torture she would endure as a result caused my blood to turn boiling hot within my veins.

“You think she’s going to cooperate?” My laugh came out forced and bitter. “Shriek’s even more stubborn than I am.”

“Oh, she’ll cooperate,” Ryker glowered. “I don’t think you want to know what’ll happen if she doesn’t.”

I shuddered a little, out of fear for my dragon, before I was forced to move my feet again by the guards. My eyes flashed back to Dagur and Heather, who both momentarily hesitated under my stare. 

“Poor Barf and Belch,” Ruffnut lamented as we made our way toward their dragon’s cage. “What torture are they enduring?” Everyone flinched as Shriek boomed again.

“I can’t look… because my hands are over my eyes.”

My brows furrowed when we stared in at Barf and Belch, lounging on their backs and purring as two lackeys tossed them fish and rubbed oils into their scales, pampering the Zippleback beyond anything we’d ever done for them.

“Well, this is more like it,” Tuff laughed, put slightly at ease for the moment. “Someone recognizes quality.”

“He likes the fish,” one of the lackeys called out, like it was something they’d just discovered. Shouldn’t everyone know dragons liked fish?

“Hey, rub me down with some of that grease,” Ruff requested as she sidled up to the bars. “I’m feeling dry.” I gagged slightly and yanked her away from the bars. She shouldn’t have been colluding with the enemy, even in the slightest.

“This hide’ll fetch top prices in the northern markets.” My eyes widened, disgusted, but Tuffnut didn’t seem to catch on at first.

“Sure,” he shrugged. “It’s soft and supple, the color… oh, the col—“ Suddenly, he fully processed what Ryker said. “Wait. What?”

“Ooh, Zippleback boots,” Dagur cackled, smiling right at Tuffnut. “I always wanted a pair.”

For a moment, that unquenchable rage returned, turning my brain off. I lunged forward, heading straight for my brother and taking a swipe with my fingers; I likely would have scratched him up, had Astrid not grabbed onto me and yanked me back, keeping her grip firm on me until I calmed down. Ryker stood, calm and cool, until I’d completely collected myself and took my place back in front of everyone.

“This is what faces all of your dragons.” Ryker snatched an empty cup from one of the lackeys tending to Barf and Belch. “Of course, they could get better treatment.” I crossed my arms against my chest and jutted out a hip, already sensing where this was going.

“Don’t just leave me hanging. How?” I remained still as stone as Ryker chucked the cup in our direction and got right up in my face.

“Start giving me some real answers!” He shouted. In spite of the circumstances, I smirked. To act like this and drop his calm demeanor, he must have been getting desperate. “Tell me what you know about the Dragon Eye.” He grabbed onto my tunic and yanked me closer, his disgusting breath falling over my face. “Exactly how many Riders guard your base?”

My response consisted only of raising an eyebrow.

Ryker finally released his grip on me, but when no one else answered his questions, he turned his attention back to Barf and Belch.

“Very well. Keep fattening this one up. More to sell.”

Upon hearing that, Ruffnut launched herself forward, collapsing onto one of the guards and slowly sliding down his waist.

“Please! Please, don’t hurt our dragon,” she begged. “I’ll do anything.”

“Then tell me what I want to know.” Even in her desperate moment, Ruffnut didn’t give in.

“Come on.”

“Ruff. Stop!” Tuffnut barked. “Thorstons don’t beg. Except for food… or money, or housing. Or any other thing that we need. This isn’t a good argument.” It wasn’t until his sister fully collapsed to the ground that Tuff shut himself up.

“You want to save your dragon? Give me some information.”

Out of nowhere, Ruffnut completely turned herself around and composed herself. She dusted off her vest and got up, her posture assertive as she faced Ryker.

“No, never!” I heard the guard she’d just clung to grunt in confusion, but no one protested as she rejoined us.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “Lost my head there for a second.” There almost seemed to be a concealed smile hiding behind her apologetic expression, but I shrugged it off in favor of focusing on Ryker.

“Interesting. Something you and your dragon may soon have in common. Get them out of my sight.”

Dagur tried to take hold of my elbow, but I violently threw him off, grumbling about how I could guide myself. The walk back to the cells was completely silent, no one bothering to protest the actions as the guards slammed the doors shut on us again. However, the moment the guards were gone, everyone but Ruffnut started scheming, more desperate to get out of here than before.

“What if we tunnel through the ceiling?” Tuff suggested, swinging his cup in the air.

“Technically, that’s not a tunnel,” Fishlegs pointed out.

“It isn’t? There’s no such thing as a ceiling tunnel, Fishlegs?” All their bickering gave me enough time to briefly come up with a vague semblance of a plan.

“Guys, I have—“ Whatever Ruff had to say, her breakdown earlier discounted any sort of plan she could invent.

“Listen up.” I stepped up into the middle of the group, drawing everyone’s attention to me. “I’ve memorized the guards’ schedules and I have a plan. But we need a way to get this door open first.”

I was completely taken aback as Ruffnut held up the shimmering, silver key that fit into the lock on our cell.

“You mean like this key that I stole from the guard?” she smirked, shaking the key back and forth slightly as it dangled. The rest of us stared at her, dumbfounded that she’d actually managed to do something _extremely_ helpful.

“Wait.” Astrid managed to find her voice first. “But how did you…?” Ruff stood up, setting her hands on her hips.

“Easy,” she shrugged. “I just grabbed the key when I flung myself onto the guard—managed to get in a bite of a yak drumstick he had on him, too.” The cup slipped from Tuff’s hands as we all fell into a stupefied silence again. “Yeah, you guys should try listening to me every now and again. Ruffnut idea farm. Back in business.”

I found myself smiling at her—a silent thanks for making this plan significantly easier.

“All right. As soon as Astrid and I take out the guards, we split up and get our dragons. Then we blast our way outta here.” Astrid extended her fist out to me, which I triumphantly bumped with my own. Things were starting to come together.

“Okay, and go where?” Tuff asked, raising a reasonable point.

“Straight up,” Astrid suggested, adding on to the plan. “Out of the range of those arrows.”

Following a brief nod to each other, Astrid took the key from Ruff and passed it to me. A Nadder across from us squawked quietly, curious as to whatever I was doing, and I gently shushed it before reaching my hand through the bars. Inserting the key into the lock and turning it proved to be much more difficult from my angle, but I somehow managed to pull it off without dropping the thing. The moment I heard the ‘click’ of the door unlocking, I slipped the key into one of the pouches on my belt, then turned back to Astrid. The two of us stared at each other briefly, mentally asking which of us would pretend to break.

“I’ve got this,” she assured me, pressing a hand against my shoulder.

“You sure?” Part of me felt bad. “I don’t want you to have to—“

“No way am I letting Dagur and Heather think they’ve gotten to you.” Her voice dropped significantly when she said that. “They’re not getting a victory.”

I sighed happily, once again grateful that she was a consistent force in my life, then stepped back to let her steal the show. Astrid hesitated a moment, shifting her posture forward, then she slammed her hands against the bars and started to shout.

“Guard! Guard! I can’t take it. I want to save my dragon. I’ll tell Ryker everything he wants to know.”

Astrid stepped back a bit at the sound of two guards’ footsteps, giving herself enough of a head start to slam the door open when the first one passed by. He collapsed to the ground immediately, unconscious, then she pulled the door shut again and stepped aside so I could repeat her actions when the next one stepped up to check on the first guard. The two of us smirked at each other, satisfied with our teamwork, but we didn’t have time to revel.

“One last thing. If this is like the other Dragon Hunter ships, there could be booby traps anywhere, so be careful,” I warned.

“Oh, great, now she tells us,” Tuffnut bellyached.

I chose not to shoot something back at them, instead too determined to save Shriek. I sprinted out ahead of the group, turning into the corridor with the dragon cages. My heart pushed against my ribcage, begging to help the other dragons escape, but the logical part of me knew that only increased our chances of getting caught. I had to focus on Shriek for now, and if we had the chance to take down this ship, then we’d free them. Hopefully, Hiccup and Snotlout would come back for us by then… if they weren’t stranded somewhere.

I shook away those thoughts immediately, catching myself beginning to panic. Knowing Hiccup, he’d gotten the two of them somewhere safe, and they’d probably come up with a plan ages before we could even start to think about escaping.

Shriek’s cell was midway down the hall, forcing me to pass a few stray dragons along the way, as well as Fishlegs and Astrid with their dragons. When she saw me, she immediately began to bounce, her yellow eyes filled with love. It felt like my chest literally swelled up as I got her cage open and avoided the alarm trigger, running up and embracing her.

“It’s gonna be okay, Shriek,” I whispered, already starting to work on her chains. “We’re getting you out of here and back home.”

I’d just started to unwind the bonds from her small leg, when a bell went off, loud enough for anyone below deck to hear. Desperately, I started to yank as hard as I could without hurting her, knowing I’d only have a few seconds before a guard came in to try and stop me.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a guard at all. When the cell door slammed shut and I turned around, I was greeted by my sister, her axe held firmly in her hands as she stood before me. Without any other weapon, I held the chain up toward my chest, ready to fend her off with it.

“You’re not going anywhere, Reign,” she snarled.

“Maybe not. But I’m really going to enjoy this.” Heather’s confidence never wavered.

“I doubt that.”

The cut on my arm pulsated and burned as Heather dragged me up onto the deck, tossing me toward the rest of my friends, who were turned to face Ryker and Dagur. The pair looked down on us, their expressions drawn downwards into scowls. I could feel blood starting to leak through the hole in my shirt Heather had created, but I pushed through by convincing myself I’d been through worse.

Not to mention, there were much bigger things to worry about now. Nothing made sense anymore, and our plan had completely failed on us.

“Ryker, Rykey, Ryker-man.” Even though my brother wasn’t addressing me, his incessant use of nicknames bred annoyance deep in my bones. “Can we please just work together on this? You know dragons, I know Dragon Riders.”

“And…?” Ryker inquired.

“Send a message. Throw one over the side.” Dagur began to cackle uncontrollably, twitching with delight. “It’ll be so fun.”

He didn’t have to say it for me to know I was the one he wanted to throw into the depths to drown. The realization he was willing to kill his own sister for fun made my stomach lurch; Dagur’s insanity knew no bounds.

“An excellent idea.” Heather strode over to the pair of men, taking her place right beside them. “Unless, of course, you think Viggo might want to question them personally about the Dragon Eye.”

I turned to Astrid, confused. I thought Ryker was the head of the Dragon Riders. Who was this ‘Viggo’ character?

“I have a better idea. Why not put them to work?” Though Heather’s save from a death sentence looked like a blessing, something told me this one was _far_ worse than what Dagur had proposed.

“I’d prefer to go overboard,” Tuff announced, raising his hand.

“Uh-huh,” his sister agreed.

“Split them up so they can’t plot any more escapes,” Heather ordered. “And make them serve you, as their dragons do.” Ryker pretended to consider it, but I could tell by the look on his face that he’d already made up his mind.

“You know? I like that idea. Put ‘em to work. But the next one who tries to escape goes over the side.”

Reluctantly, I turned on my heel and picked up a mop as one of the guards pressed a crossbow to my back, forcing Astrid, myself, and Tuffnut to begin cleaning the deck. I tried my best to just focus on what I was doing, but I couldn’t help myself from looking to the last two members of my family. I expected to feel a burning anger toward them, but as I watched Dagur embrace Heather, something else in me felt like it was shattering. There was part of me, deep down and severely repressed, that wished the three of us could have been normal. As I mopped, my mind started to wander, wondering what it could have been like if we all had been on the same side of this war—hopefully on the Dragon Rider side rather than the Hunters—but I forced myself to brush it away.

Betrayal ran deep in the family, yet no matter how many times I reminded myself of that, it never seemed to stick unless one of them was saying it to me.

Thankfully, Tuffnut distracted me only a moment later, completely eliminating the thoughts I struggled with. 

“So, let me get this straight: Heather took you down all by yourself?” At least now I felt anger toward my sister… and Tuffnut, as well.

“She had an axe,” I reminded him. He paused for a moment, considering my reasoning, but it wasn’t good enough for him.

“Yes, and you had two arms, which are axes without blades.” That logic made no sense to a rational person, but I’m sure in the brain of Tuffnut, all the dots connected perfectly. “This is yet another argument for why I say always carry an axe.”

“I don’t have an axe, Tuff. I have a sword.”

Annoyed, I went back to mopping and sweeping, banishing thoughts of my family any time they tried to pop up. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Astrid glancing at me worriedly every now and then, but if the two of us tried to talk, no doubt we would be thrown overboard by the guards, and neither of us wanted to risk that for the other.

_Astrid is my family,_ I thought, _and so is Hiccup._ The phrase played on loop, but it did nothing to ease my mind.

Though Astrid and I didn’t want to risk talking, I felt no need to do the same for Tuff, immediately fixating back on our conversation from earlier.

“How do you not understand that having a sword—or an axe, for that matter—is a huge advantage in a fight?” Tuff merely leaned against his broom, picking the dirt out from under his fingernails.

“It isn’t if you have a mace.” My hands gripped the mop tighter, seconds away from breaking it.

“I didn’t have a mace, or an axe, or a crossbow,” I seethed.

“Now we’re getting hypothetical? Bet you didn’t have eyes that could shoot fire, either.” I resisted the urge to remind him no living Viking could do that.

Thankfully, an uplifting set of news snapped the two of us out of it.

“Dragons sighted off the starboard bow!” a soldier shouted from above. “With riders!”

Even from that distance, I could clearly distinguish the black and orange dragons quickly sailing closer to us. Finally, they’d come back for us!

“Standby catapults. Archers at the ready. Wait ‘till they’re in range.” Despite Rykers orders, the closer Hiccup and Snotlout got, the more I felt my determination rising back up. “Hunters, fire at will!”

My hand flew to my mouth as some of the arrows loosed stuck against the bottoms of Toothless and Hookfang, but it fell away when neither of the dragons reacted to the dragon root, somehow impervious to it. It wasn’t until the pair circled back around and dove a little closer that I noticed something white covering the two dragons. They’d crafted armor! There was that genius I’d come to love.

Toothless’ plasma blasts destroyed some of the arrow launchers, and when Ryker and Heather were knocked onto our level, I turned to Tuff with a smile.

“Now or never.”

I swung up my mop and struck the guard in front of me, knocking him to the ground in one swipe. Astrid rushed to our sides, offering her help as soldiers rushed toward us. I heard Tuff shout about hating cleaning as he knocked his guard over the side of the boat, fueling the hatred all of us had stored away.

“Yeah? Well, looks like there’s some more cleaning up to do.”

All three of our strengths combined helped us cut through the guards like dying blades of grass, their bodies thudding against the wooden deck, unconscious, as Toothless and Snotlout’s blasts disarmed weapons and rocked the boat. By the time we’d finished swinging and kicking, there weren’t any soldiers left, except for two aiming arrows in our direction. I prepared myself to deflect their attacks, when the two of them were suddenly thrown to the ground, revealing Heather.

“She’s mine!” my sister declared.

Astrid and Tuffnut rushed below deck at my urging, leaving me to fend off my own sister. That anger and hatred I’d become too familiar with on this boat came rushing back as I deflected the swings of her axe, encouraging me to push back against her frantic and erratic patterns of attack. Once I actually managed to defend myself, Heather snapped the mop in two, but that only provided me with a better advantage. Taking after her, I swiped at her with the wood as fast as I could, forcing her back just far enough to the point where she tripped over a board and slammed her head against the deck, rending her unable to get up. Satisfied, I threw the wooden sticks down by her head, then marched below deck and into Shriek’s cage.

The chain came off much easier this time around, without the added stress of someone catching us.

“Shriek, we’re leaving.”

I was about to drop the chain, when, _yet again_ , Heather appeared in the doorway. She’d recovered from that way too quickly, but she definitely wouldn’t be a problem for any of us.

“Don’t you ever give up?” I groaned.

“That doesn’t run in our family,” she smirked. “I’d say you should know that, but you couldn’t possibly have been part of this family long enough for that.”

My grip on the chain tightened. She’d pulled on the one thread that completely undid my mind, and she knew it.

I really _was_ going to enjoy it this time around.

Part of me felt afraid as I stared down at Heather, sprawled out against the floor, and felt no remorse, but there were always bigger things. I could feel the boat shaking violently now, meaning we had to leave before we went down with everyone else. I climbed up onto Shriek’s back, and she flew out through the hole we’d gone in through. When we emerged, I was greeted with the sight of Ryker aiming an arrow straight at Hiccup and Toothless, the latter of who’s armor had begun to come undone.

Not on my watch.

I pushed Shriek to dive, somehow without Ryker noticing, and she slammed her head against the side of the boat, causing Ryker to drop the weapon. I smirked down at him as the two of us took to the air, joining Hiccup.

“I told you, you were messing with the wrong Vikings!” I heard Astrid shout as she emerged from below deck.

None of us left until the entire group was with us, and even when we had the background of burning ships, I felt sick to my stomach.

“Was that Dagur on that ship?” Hiccup questioned, turning to me. I could spot the relief behind his eyes, but I didn’t want to entertain it at the moment. That question made everything bubble back up. “Is he with the Dragon Hunters?”

“Not just Dagur,” Ruff declared, like it was something to be excited about.

“Hiccup, we have a lot to talk about,” I sighed, unwilling to spill anything more before we headed back to the Edge.

The rest of the group talked and laughed with each other on the ride back, but I paid no mind to it. I wanted time to just let everything simmer and sort itself out in my mind, so that when Hiccup and I talked eventually, it wouldn’t all come out as jumbled garbage, like it usually did.

By the time we got back to the Edge, night had fallen, making the yellow glow of our lamps from our huts that much more enticing. The rest of the group headed to the clubhouse to eat and discuss what just happened, while Hiccup and I made our way back to our hut. The moment he shut the door, I crossed the room and wrapped my arms around his waist, wanting, more than anything at the moment, something stable to hold onto. Like always, he didn’t try to push me into explaining, allowing us to just be for a while together. The steady beat of Hiccup’s heart calmed my racing mind, reminding me that he was here, and I’d come back home.

“Heather was with the Hunters, too,” I finally muttered into his chest. Hiccup paused a moment, pushing me away slightly to look down at me, his expression completely baffled.

“Wh-what? How is that--?”

“She started going on about how she was alone in the world, and Dagur was the only family she had left.” Without noticing, I started to get choked up. “I know, deep down, that he just manipulated her in some way and probably lied to her until she cracked, but then she started talking about how I was the traitor to the rest of our family.” My words started to pick up steam, spilling out of my mouth faster and faster. “And at first, I didn’t listen to her because I was like ‘my other option was Dagur, and he sucks’. But, the more she kept saying it, the more it sunk in, and the more I started to realize that I abandoned my family. I’m the middle child, for Thor’s sake! I have an older brother to look after me, and a younger sister to look after—that leaves a pretty big gap in the family.”

The coherent thoughts devolved into choking breaths, stopping me in my tracks completely. Though I couldn’t speak anymore, Hiccup seemed to understand exactly what I was thinking, pulling me close again and occasionally pressing kisses against the top of my head or my cheeks. It wasn’t until he’d assured me I was in the right place, and muttered a thousand ‘I love you, and I can’t imagine life if you hadn’t stayed on Berk’s that I managed to come back out of my thoughts, and he pressed a gentle kiss against my lips.

He was reluctant to leave to get food, but I assured him I’d be fine, and he promised he’d come right back.

Guilt settled into my chest as I watched him leave, leaning against the table.

_Keep it up, Reign. You’ve got this._


	18. Bad Moon Rising (Hiccup)

**_So, I know that Hiccup is there during the scene where Gobber’s telling the story of Kessler, but, like, all of a sudden, he just disappears, and then he has no idea what’s happening with Tuffnut in the scene after that, so I’m removing him from it because continuity._ **

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The deafening scream of a Thunderdrum forced everyone to cover their ears, allowing the uncomfortably loud sounds to die down. Despite the strength of the boom, the training dummy made of what Fishlegs claimed to be Gronckle Iron never dented or split, like any normal metal would have. Gobber, who had come to take a look at what Fishlegs had discovered, offered the boy next to him a high-five. The metal had passed the first test, which proved extremely promising.

Reign and Shriek touched down onto the stone of our training arena, signaling Toothless and I to take off and give it a shot. We circled around the arena once, trying to get a good enough angle on the dummy.

“Give it all you’ve got, bud,” I encouraged. Toothless roared excitedly, then fired a plasma blast at the base of the dummy, knocking it over but once again leaving it unscathed.

As the two of us landed, Barf and Belch leapt on the thing, stomping their feet against the shimmering, highly-reflective metal. Reign flashed me a tiny smile, and I moved to stand beside her, resting an arm around her shoulders. Even after all these years together, when she leaned her head against my shoulder and held the hand I’d draped over her, I felt myself turn red.

“Looks like Fishlegs finally cracked the formula,” she chuckled. “Who knew those Dragon Hunters would actually be useful for something?”

Even though she made the joke, I knew it touched on a tender spot she’d been trying to bury. On a few nights, I caught Reign up late at night, pacing the main floor or out of the hut completely, returning from some flight to a place she never disclosed. She was fighting her own war in her head, and all I could do was remind myself that when she was ready, she’d talk everything out. We never hid things from each other, at least not for very long.

Her small fingers twiddled with the silver necklace draped against her chest, only further worrying me.

“All right.” Astrid stepped up to the dummy, snapping me out of my trance. “Let’s see how your Gronckle Iron holds up against a close-range spine shot.”

“Be our guest.” Fishlegs stepped aside, allowing Astrid and Stormfly adequate space without hurting any of us.

“Stormfly! Spines!”

The Nadder squawked and stepped back, readying herself to fire a shot, when Tuffnut came shambling over toward the dummy, covered in streaks of dirt and his hair littered with branches and leaves. He was lost in an exhausted daze, completely unaware of the danger he’d wandered into.

“Tuff, no!” I cried. He didn’t hear my plea, but thankfully, when Stormfly fired, she missed Tuffnut’s head. The sound finally turned his attention toward us, but he failed to notice as the dummy started to list back and forth, threatening to tumble over.

“Thank Loki!” he sighed. “You guys are not gonna believe what just happened. It was—“

Before he got to finish, the dummy finally collapsed, knocking Tuffnut out cold as it slammed against his head suddenly. Flooded with worry, all of us rushed to his side, staring for a moment to make sure he was still breathing before all taking hold of a limb and lifting him. Even with all of us sharing the weight, it still proved incredibly difficult to move Tuff, taking us until nearly sunset to get him just to the clubhouse. When we reached the staircase up, he finally came to, and with some help, made it up the stairs and onto the bench of the table where we all ate.

“Tuffnut, what happened to you?” Reign asked as she leaned against my back, resting both her arms against my shoulders. His face immediately shifted, taking on the appearance of a wise, old storyteller.

“There I was, me and my inner Nut.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s great, but Tuff, what happened out there?” I pressed, trying to make him get to the point.

“It was dark. So dark, Hiccup, not even the moon to light my merry way. And then, all of a sudden, out of the darkness, red eyes, ferocious teeth, a growl that could peel the beak of a chicken!” In response, Chicken let out a cluck, drawing Tuff’s attention down to his pet. “Sorry. Metaphor. It grabbed me and tossed me around like a rag doll, a very handsome rag doll. And then, it left me for dead.”

That helped us fill in the gaps of the event, but there were major details missing within the tale.

“Can you tell us anything else about what attacked you?” Fishlegs inquired. Tuffnut just shook his head, some of the leaves coming loose onto the floorboards.

“It was far too fast. Too cagey, too quick… Give me another adjective.”

“Ooh, how about ‘imaginary’?” Snotlout cackled, taking his shot. The rest of us burst into soft laughter, realizing that, more likely than not, Tuffnut had just stumbled and fallen through bushes and trees and wanted to cover for it.

“Laugh and guffaw, if you must. But would an imaginary beast give you one of these?”

I flinched as Tuffnut thrust out his arm, revealing a bright red bite outlined with prominent teeth marks. Admittedly, it was far too large for any human to give that to him, or for him to have accidentally bitten himself, but I didn’t recognize it from any dragon, either.

Behind me, I heard Astrid snicker, and when I turned around, she smirked down at Reign and I.

“That just looks like—“

Thinking fast, Reign shot up and elbowed Astrid in the sternum, shutting her up before she could finish the joke.

“All right, let’s try and figure out what gave you this,” I suggested quickly, trying to move on. “Fishlegs, can you get the Book of Dragons? It should be on the table in our hut.”

He nodded and sprung up, returning with both the book and some of his Dragon Cards he’d created, as well as the set of Bork’s papers Reign and I kept locked away and the Dragon Eye. For a moment, I questioned how exactly he found that, but I managed to get distracted by sifting through everything we had. Reign and I took to the book and the cards, while Fishlegs leafed through the other two, but when the two of us came up fruitless, we took a seat next to Gobber around the small fire he’d lit. Gently, I leaned against Reign’s arm, somehow believing that would keep me awake.

“Oh, there’s nothing anywhere that matches this,” Fishlegs sighed, frustrated. “The Book of Dragons, Bork’s papers, and even the Dragon Eye.”

I shook my head, trying to come with any other medium that would give us our answers, but apart from actually going out there and looking at dragon teeth ourselves—which was not only risky, but incredibly stupid—I had nothing. Reign, too, wore a blank expression, meaning her idea well had run dry.

“Won’t be in any of those,” Gobber stated confidently, standing. I turned to look up at him, confused. How could he possibly know what caused that bite?

“Gobber?” I questioned, waiting for some sort of answer.

“It’s obvious we’re all thinking the same thing.”

“I can pretty much guarantee you we’re not,” Reign countered, sitting up a little straighter. “But why don’t you tell us what you’re thinking?”

Gobber narrowed his eyelids, leering over the three of us and Tuffnut, trying to ramp up the drama before he finally uttered what had been on his mind.

“Lycanwing.” I vaguely remembered something about a Lycanwing from childhood, but Reign just remained draped in confusion. She hadn’t been fed the same childhood legends we had, having grown up on Berserker Island. “The Lycanwing Dragon is a rare beast, and a vicious one at that. Those who survive its bite are not actually survivors at all. They are doomed to live as half-man, half-Lycanwing.” I could _hear_ Reign’s eye roll. “At the height of every full moon, the condemned Viking transforms into a terrifying dragon! Wings the size of a house, teeth stronger than Gronckle Iron and a thirst for blood.”

Though I figured all of us would be old enough not to buy into all of this, Tuffnut still yelped and jumped back, the fear of becoming a dragon already working its way into his head. With him, we had to nip this before it really started.

“Tuff, the Lycanwing is a legend,” I interrupted, shutting the idea down. “It’s not a real dragon. Gobber, have you ever seen a Lycanwing?” Gobber’s eyes flickered away for a second.

“No,” he answered, slightly sheepish.

“Has anyone on Berk ever seen a Lycanwing?” The rest of the gang shook their heads.

“Not that I can recall.”

“I rest my case.” Gobber, however, wasn’t about to give up.

“But the stories… they’ll straighten the hairs on a curly-haired yak.” Smirking, Gobber reached out and grabbed a torch from the wall, using the fire pit below him to light it. “Anyone who dares to hear them, follow me.”

I started to get up, but a hand around my wrist hesitated my movements. Reign moved her other hand up to my shoulder, silently asking me to stay. It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard the stories of the Lycanwing a million times when I was a child, and I knew that right now, she needed someone with her.

“Hiccup? Reign?” Astrid wore a cautiously questioning expression. “You two coming?”

I rested an arm around Reign’s waist, giving her the answer she needed. The rest of the group followed after Gobber, ready for tall tales meant for children, and as soon as they were gone, Reign sprang into action. As she disappeared down below to access the ice house, I used the smaller fire to light the larger place in the middle of the clubhouse, preparing it for the yak meat. Immediately upon returning, she set the large chunks down beside the fire, allowing the layers of crystalline frost to melt away before she dared to throw them on for cooking.

Making dinner had worked out relatively quickly, leaving the two of us in a strange sort of silence. The emotions moving about in the air weren’t really distinguishable, jumbling together in one big, uncomfortable ball, throwing up a barrier between the two of us we liked to pretend wasn’t there. It felt like, all too often, we got stuck in these moments where tension created a rift, but neither of us wanted to act on it until it was too late. In all honesty, it was getting a little old from my end, but I couldn’t begin to fathom what Reign was going through.

The momentary frustration drifted away, leaving me with guilt for even feeling that way in the first place. Reign had a bit of a respite after learning she was a Berserker, but once everything started to pick up, it was like it wanted to come on hard, fast, and in a never ending spiral of proving the thought ‘it couldn’t possibly get any worse than this’ wrong.

She tensed momentarily as I set both my arms around her waist and rested my head against her shoulder, but following the shock, all of her completely slackened in relaxation. Her eyes had been bouncing around, constantly on the alert, and for her to completely let her guard down now… there was something comforting about it.

No conversations needed to be exchanged by that point. Talking it out could wait a little longer, in favor of just savoring comfort for a little while longer. The peace of the world around us grew stronger as I began to press kisses along her cheek and down her neck, eliciting a content sigh from her chest.

“Uh… are we interrupting something?”

Startled, Reign jumped and whipped around, nearly striking me in the face out of pure instinct. The others, minus Tuffnut, were standing in the doorway of the clubhouse, staring at the scene that had just unfolded in front of them with amused smirks and stifled laughter. I wanted to be embarrassed, but in the moment, Reign and I couldn’t help but just chuckle.

We placed the yak mutton for Tuffnut on a plate, just in case he wanted to come back later for it, then the rest of us dove in, managing to stir up laughter among the conversation. It wasn’t until plates had been cleared, and the little, flitting musings between friends fell silent that Tuffnut returned, and the air thickened with tension again.

“Uh, Tuffnut, what are you doing?” I questioned as I eyed the cart of objects he wheeled in. He simply let out a sigh, forgoing explaining in favor of continuing whatever he had set out to do. Without much effort, he removed his favorite mace and placed it in Snotlout’s hands.

“I give you Macey,” Tuff declared, his voice wavering with sadness. “Hold her dearly. She likes sitting by the window, looking at the moon. The full moon. Huh, the irony.”

“Oh, my Thor. That’s so thoughtful.” Despite his graciousness a moment ago, the second Tuffnut was out of his sightline, Snotlout tossed the weapon aside, rolling his eyes. But, by that point, Tuff had already moved on, this time stopping in front of Fishlegs.

“Fishlegs, I give you my favorite bowl.” Fishlegs turned the object over in his hands, scanning over its surface until he spotted something that made him halt in his movements.

“Hey, that’s my bowl!” he cried, shooting a glare toward the man that had just handed him the object.

“And now, now you have found it. Eat well, my friend. Eat well.” My stomach lurched slightly as the Viking approached me, clearly off his rocker. “Hiccup, Hiccup, Hiccup, what do you give the Viking that has everything?” From beside me, I heard Reign snort and mutter something in agreement underneath her breath.

I stiffened as he grabbed Ruffnut by her shoulders and violently yanked her closer to me.

“Hey! You can’t give me away!” Her protests fell on deaf ears.

“In time, she’ll come to you. She’s going to take this hard and will certainly go through a prolonged mourning period. She’s gonna need a new twin brother. I nominate you.” Nothing about that cleared any of this up. “It’s a terrible job and she smells horrible. You’ll have to dress like me and grow your hair, so there are perks.”

I’d had about enough by that point. Whatever he was on about, it needed to be shut down now, before it got even weirder.

“All right, all right. What did we miss?” Reign shifted slightly in her chair, staring up at Tuff as she leaned against one of her fists, awaiting any sort of explanation.

“I’m just…” Tuff let out a sigh, his eyes drifting up to the moon. “…preparing myself.”

“For what?” Reign scoffed, shaking her mop of hair.

“Reign, have you seen that moon?” He spoke as though that should’ve gotten a reaction out of either of us. “When it rises to its apex, which I think is a word that means the tip-top, I’m going full dragon. Tuffnut Lycanwing.”

Hearing the ridiculous story, Snotlout burst out laughing—until Tuffnut lept forward and leaned in close to the gleeful Viking.

“You’re a funny guy, Snotlout. I’ll eat you first,” he growled.

Rolling my eyes, I stood up and moved closer to Tuffnut, desperately attempting to shut him down; the cart was starting to ride right off the path.

“Tuff, we went over this,” I sighed. “The Lycanwing is a myth. It’s not real. You’re not turning into a dragon. Fishlegs, will you please tell him?”

I’d hoped he would respond in the normal, rational manner he usually did, but instead, he shrunk back slightly, quivering and avoiding giving any sort of straight answer—or anything resembling an answer, really.

“Now, I must go and say the most difficult goodbye of all. If you’ll excuse me.”

The minute Tuff was out of the doorway, Snotlout started laughing again, nearly falling off the stool this time. Yet, once again, he couldn’t just get through all of it before one of the twins started to chew him out.

“What did I tell you?” Ruffnut screamed. “What did I tell you? You’re gonna help me fix this, Snotlout! Ya hear me?” He remained completely unmoved as Ruffnut stormed off, following after her brother.

“Wow,” he drawled. “They can really get riled up, huh?”

I clenched my fists and glowered at him, that statement alone serving as enough to tip me over the edge. It had become pretty clear through this exchange that Snotlout played a major part in the paranoia, and although that didn’t surprise me, it certainly wasn’t welcome. There had been many instances when I wanted to just unload on him, now more than ever, but Reign somehow managed to talk me down from it all.

We all decided to depart and call it a night, having had our fill of the twins’ insanity. Reign kept her composure pretty well for the most part, but once I shut the door to our hut, she collapsed against the table, shaking her head.

“How is it possible that _these_ are the problems we get to deal with?” she huffed. “The people back on Berk, they probably just have to worry about making sure the food gets stored properly and the dragons don’t attack anyone. We could have that, but no, we have to deal with a Viking with an already overactive imagination believing he’s going to turn into a dragon.”

She shook her head, red hair flying all over the place, her face buried deep in her hands. She was already dealing with a great amount of stress, and this wasn’t going to help whatsoever. I didn’t want to have to go through this situation any more than she did, but if there was a chance I could put a positive spin on this, I’d leap on the chance.

“Well, we’re also probably the best equipped to handle it,” I shrugged, leaning against the table beside her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I sidled up a little closer, placing a hand over one of her own and bringing it down so I could look her in the eye.

“We’ve defeated enemies that are ten times worse than this. Tuffnut’s imagination? We can take care of that no problem. We’ve got this.”

Strangely, that seemed to put Reign’s mind at ease. She leaned against my shoulder, another content sigh escaping her lips, and for a while, the two of us just sat there, enjoying the intimacy of the moment.

The next morning unfortunately brought its own challenges. Tuffnut had locked himself in the dragon stalls, claiming it was where he needed to be, and no one had seen Ruffnut or Snotlout since last night, meaning we now had three riders down. Hoping that the man who put the stories in his head would be able to bring him back down, Reign and I sent Gobber in to speak to him. Unfortunately, when he emerged, he was still on his own.

“Well, I did my best,” he sighed, utterly defeated. “And he’s convinced the moon didn’t apex last night, so it must be tonight.” Behind Gobber, I could see Tuff hunching over Chicken, whispering and growling in some strange communication.

“Well, that’s great,” I deadpanned. We had enough to worry about around here, this certainly wasn’t helping.

The sound of wings flapping turned Reign, Astrid, and my attention out toward the horizon. Over one of Dragon’s Edge’s peaks, I could just barely spot a large, orange Monstrous Nightmare, barreling toward us with a rider that wasn’t his own.

“Is that…”

“Ruffnut,” Reign confirmed. “Flying Hookfang?”

Sure enough, as the pair got closer, the blonde rider came more into focus. However, Hookfang wasn’t exactly the sort of dragon to just let someone else ride him, even if they knew each other, so her solo presence there didn’t make much sense.

“Where’s Snotlout?” Astrid questioned, leaning over slightly to try and spot the other Viking.

“There he is.” Gobber pointed up in the general direction of the pair, bringing my attention to some big thing slung over the side of the Nightmare. “Big lump behind her. Tear-stained face.”

That face wasn’t obvious until the three of them crashed onto the platform, sending the riders tumbling against the wood right by our feet. Hookfang’s tongue hung out of his mouth slightly, his panting breaths indicating he’d been pushed to the limit; Snotlout, too, could barely move, whimpering in pain. Completely contrary to those two, Ruffnut immediately shot back up and dusted herself off, treating the scenario like it was nothing.

“What a rough one,” she cackled as she cracked her knuckles. Once he was finally able to get to his feet, Hookfang huffed right at the female rider, then stomped off, heading into his section within the stables.

“Wh-What are you two doing?” I stuttered, still attempting to pull myself together following the suddenness of everything. “We could use you now.”

“We’ve been gathering samples,” Ruff asserted, dragging a crying Snotlout behind her, seemingly against his will.

“Samples of what?”

The moment the words left Reign’s mouth, the three of us standing there regretted it. Ruffnut thrust one of Snotlout’s arms into our faces, revealing the multitudes of different bites and markings created by other living creatures. A few oozed pus and blood, meaning they needed to be treated soon. I felt myself physically gag the longer I stared at the injuries.

“Dragon bites. One of these has to match Tuff’s and convince him that this Lycanwing deal is just another one of his paranoid fantasies.” Snotlout’s sobbing and twitching only got worse the longer we talked.

“And, why is Snotlout—“

“He started this stupid thing with his impressive, yet sinister, powers of suggestion. It’s all Snotlout’s fault my dopey brother thinks he’s turning into a dragon!” He flinched when Ruffnut’s elbow went flying out in his direction, clearly already traumatized by their expedition last night.

Normally, I wouldn’t have agreed with this sort of method, but in this case, I really couldn’t see a way to justify Snotlout’s actions.

“Looks like you earned this one, Snotlout,” I chuckled.

“Not so funny now, is it?” the blonde Viking challenged, leaning in slightly closer and sneering in his face.

“No, Ruffnut, not funny at all.”

Snotlout shuddered in fear when Ruff slapped her hand around his wrist, dragging him into the dragon stables behind her.

“Let’s go, pal.”

Reign turned on her heel, prepared to follow and diffuse anything that went too far or pushed the boundaries of life and death, when another dragon and their rider landed in front of us.

“Hiccup! Hiccup!” Fishlegs looked as though he was about to explode with excitement. “I was at my wit’s end, trying to think of something, _anything_ that could help us with this, when my perfect little angel crushed my desk and look what I found.”

From the pouch in his belt, Fishlegs removed a rogue Dragon Eye lens. I elected to ignore the method it was discovered by, the excitement as the glass caught a beam of sunlight enveloping me.

“It’s the one you found in the cave with Gustav,” he explained, clarifying where this one had come from. “I’ve been meaning to give it back, Hiccup. I’m not usually so irresponsible with artifacts.”

“Fishlegs, we have got to see what’s on it!” I interjected, cutting him off before he started rambling.

“That’s what I was going to say! I figured you and Reign would want to come check it out with me.” He hesitated a moment, eyes flickering down toward his feet. “Plus, I didn’t want to take the Dragon Eye without your permission.”

The three of us jumped onto our dragons after Reign bid Astrid a goodbye, rushing for our hut as quickly as our companions could carry us. Fishlegs kept his eyes squeezed shut as Reign moved straight for the chest we’d hidden our precious artifact in, while I grabbed a notebook and some charcoal, ready to take down whatever we might find on the lens.

Unfortunately, our optimism was a bit over shot and misplaced. By the time the sun disappeared, we’d exhausted every combination of dragon flames and class that we could fathom; the results they yielded either came up completely blank, or with information we’d seen thousands of times before.

Defeated, Reign slumped down in a chair and slammed her head against the wooden table, and I rested my hands against her back.

“Well, that’s it,” Fishlegs grumbled. “That’s every combination I can think of.”

He began to pack up his things to call it a night, when a white light flashing against the wall distracted me. Its source made itself apparent when I looked into the other end of the Dragon Eye, displaying the clear image of the moon.

“Wait, wait! I see something.” Thinking quick, I called my dragon over. “Okay. Let’s try this. Toothless?” Reluctantly, he stretched and got to his feet, trotting over to us.

The purple from his low flame strengthened the light already filtering in from the moon, revealing the chilling image of a man, stood on two legs, with dragon wings hanging from his arms.

“Now, am I crazy, or is that a man with dragon wings instead of arms?” Reign sighed, sounding more annoyed than confused or concerned.

“You’re not crazy.” Fishlegs reached for the Dragon Eye, turning to slightly to bring up the next set of images. “And there he is again, with a tail to go with the wings.”

Our eyes drifted upward slightly, shifting to the final image of a complete dragon.

“Hiccup?” Reign gasped. I remained in a dumbfounded silence for a moment, unable to draw my eyes away.

“Fishlegs, can you make out what this says?” I inquired, hoping there was some sort of logical explanation. Fortunately, with him being Fishlegs and all, he was able to translate the ancient writings instantly.

“’No man shall tread on these shores, lest he become what he has most feared.’” Fishlegs moved his focus to a map near the inscription. “That must be Lycanwing Island.”

I let out a sigh, long and drawn out. Despite how ridiculous the tales made the entire concept of a Lycanwing out to be, this… completely contradicted and threw out any of that logic and reason I’d grown so accustomed to governing my life by.

“And that, my friends, is why we always listen to Gobber,” I admitted.

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Reign laughed. “But, yeah, this Lycanwing, it could be… well, not a myth.”

My curiosity grew the longer I looked at the map specifically. While I still doubted Tuffnut had been bitten by a Lycanwing, it could at least be interesting to take a look at what exactly was going on there.

“That island’s not far from here…”

I looked to Reign, who nodded and smirked at me, while Fishlegs quivered.

“Why do I get the feeling we’re going on a little Hiccup-Reign-Fishlegs recon mission?”

The three of us packed up a few things, including some food for the dragons and ourselves, then we all snuck off toward the stables to get Reign and Fishlegs’ dragons. We had to be wary of Tuffnut in particular, considering how sensitive the issue would be to his susceptible mind, but we weren’t exactly planning on inviting any of the others along either. Though he was still in there, Tuff was passed out on the floor with Chicken, meaning he hopefully wouldn’t hear us.

“Okay, guys, if we do happen to run across a Lycanwing, we need to have a really good plan,” I whispered as the two of them unlocked their dragon pens.

“How about, don’t get bitten?” Though there was a joking lilt in her tone, I knew Reign was dead serious.

“That sounds like a good one to me.” Fishlegs was still trembling slightly in fear, even when Meatlug began to happily jump around him.

“Yup, me too. Okay, Lycanwing Island, here we come.”

The flight to the island remained quiet and relatively uninteresting, most likely due to the impeding potential doom that faced all of us. Realistically, the chances of a dragon that could somehow bite a person and make them transform into a completely different creature was highly unlikely, but at this rate, I wasn’t about to completely throw it out with the yak dung. We’d seen far more fantastical things in our lifetime, and stranger, too. Could it really be that impossible?

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been pondering and mulling over the different possibilities, when Reign called out to me, signaling we were ready to land. The three of us circled around the island a couple of times, trying to find anything interesting, before Reign finally spotted a cave; there weren’t any signs of life or major damage to investigate, so that was our best option. The tunnel appeared to run deep, meaning we couldn’t see anything as we climbed off our dragons.

“Okay, Toothless, give us some light.”

He fired off a single plasma blast, sending it straight through to the deepest parts of the cave. It most definitely struck something far off, but whatever it was never made any sound after, meaning it was most likely a wall, and we could maybe get through relatively unharmed. However, right before we were about to advance forward, a flock of Night Terrors came shooting out, going straight for our heads and forcing the three of us to duck quickly and slap our hands over our heads. The flapping sounds of their wings beat loudly in my ears, creating a drumbeat all of their own—and then, suddenly, we were settled back into complete silence, though it was no more comforting.

“Let’s go, guys. Don’t worry, I’ll be right next to you the whole time.” Beside me, I heard Reign snicker.

“And I’ll be next to him, with a weapon.” I cast her a deadpan glare.

As promised, Reign kept one hand steady on the hilt of her sword, ready to swing it out at any moment if necessary, while Fishlegs and I remained on the alert. Every shadow cast by the moonlight caused our blonde companion to jump, his shrieks barely suppressed by his own common sense. It wasn’t until we’d gone beyond the reaches of the mouth of the cave that he finally settled down, that way he could read the writings painted on the stalactites and stalagmites pressed against the walls.

“’Beware the beast. Turn back before you become him. Your fate is sealed!’ Did you hear that, guys?” he cried. “Our fate is sealed!”

“Fishlegs, we’re fine,” I assured him, hoping to get him to speak softer in case there was some sort of dragon in here. “It’s just an old cave drawing.” I jumped slightly when Reign reached over, taking my hand with her own and offering it a squeeze.

“Can’t believe we’re gonna die chasing an imaginary dragon,” Fishlegs whimpered.

My heart lept into my chest at the sound of Toothless’ deep growl, his eyes trained on some sort of danger straight ahead. Part of me wanted to simply turn tail and run, but that wouldn’t prove helpful in this situation. Besides, Reign had already fully whipped out her previously sheathed weapon, meaning she was ready to rush head-first into battle—and she’d need backup in that case, no matter how hard she insisted she could fight on her own.

I couldn’t believe my eyes: the shadow of a dragon with two eyes that light completely filtered through stared us down, appearing at least twenty times our size.

“Hiccup? There it is!” Fishlegs lunged out to his side and grabbed onto Meatlug. “If I have to go, girl, I’m glad it’s with you.” Reign took a step forward, but I pulled on the hand that was still linked with mine, forcing her back. Something wasn’t right about that dragon’s eyes…

“All right, Toothless, light,” I ordered.

Rather than attempting to figure out exactly where the dragon was, he shot at the stalactites right over our heads, heating them to the point where we got a flare of light for a good five seconds. Had it been a normal dragon around the corner, it would have growled, or maybe even just lept out to attack us, but instead, it remained completely stone-still.

Not to mention, the eyes still were completely see-through.

Catching onto what I’d seen, Reign turned around, pulling me along with her as she spotted the source of the ‘dragon’.

“Look. It’s eyes.” She flashed a bright, eager smile at me, proud of the discovery. Once she put her sword away, we kneeled down to get a closer look at the carving in front of us.

“I am not looking at that thing’s eyes! Do you know me?” Right. Fishlegs still thought it was a real dragon.

“Fishlegs, would you just look?” Reign insisted. Her voice cutting in seemed to reassure him everything was safe, and with that, he finally turned around and realized he was in no immediate danger.

“Are those…?”

Reign and I reached out and each grabbed a lens, which were temporarily serving as the eyes of the fake dragon. Finding two of them in one place… it couldn’t have been a coincidence. If two of them were needed to see the full image, this could be a huge clue into those Dragon Hunters’ operations, or bases, or _anything_ we needed to gain the upper hand on them. 

“Dragon Eye lenses.”

Eagerly, I stored the lenses in Toothless’ saddle bag, then the three of us booked it back for Berk. Even if it took the rest of the night—and we hadn’t slept in quite a while, since the flight took half a day each—the three of us were determined to figure out what these could lead us to. It wasn’t until we got back to Berk that the ominous feeling returned, only furthered when we landed at the stables to find Gobber exiting and closing the door behind him, wearing a confused expression.

“Gobber, how’s Tuff doing?” I asked warily, figuring that was the only reason he’d go in there.

“Gone,” he laughed, like it was all one big joke. “He and chicken flew the coop last night. Said something about taking flight off the tallest cliff when he went ‘full dragon’.” Alarmed, I immediately went on the defensive.

“You didn’t try to stop him?” I demanded, hoping that Tuff hadn’t already jumped.

“I was a bit busy,” he countered.

“Doing what?” Reign’s hands planted themselves firmly against her hips, serving as a warning to Gobber.

“Extracting sea snake venom from Snotlout.” My brows went up slightly when he stroked the needle he’d most likely used. “You should’ve heard him. He sounded like a yak being turned inside out.” I really didn’t want to dwell on that any further, so I shut down the topic.

“Well, we better go tell Ruffnut,” I suggested, figuring she’d be the best person to help find her brother.

“Gone, too,” Gobber informed us. “Went to look for her brother. She seemed to think that whether he was a dragon or not, he wouldn’t survive ‘the flight.’ Dragged Snotlout with her. Personally, I’m surprised he made the trip. The boy’s not looking so well.”

“Great, so everything’s still chaos,” Reign groaned. She momentarily shot me a glare, getting worked up where she stood. “’We’re the best equipped to handle it,’” she mocked. “Come on, let’s go get Astrid and try to find them before someone gets hurt more than they already are.”

Somehow, this entire scenario had completely slipped by Astrid, who hadn’t been alerted to anything while she was out on patrol—complete negligence on Gobber’s part. The four of us flew over the island, desperate and silently praying to the gods that everything would be fine when we found them. There were so many cliffs on Dragon’s Edge, and he’d had a whole day head’s start on all of us, meaning our odds were unlikely… which made it feel ever more like a blessing from Odin himself when we found Tuffnut still alive and on the island, gripping Chicken tight under his arm as he stared down and shouted back and forth with his sister. However, the step he took backwards, closer to the edge of the drop-off, proved less hopeful.

“Tuff, stop!” I screamed, stopping him as Shriek, Stormfly, Meatlug, and Toothless landed. “There is no metamorphosis, all right?” Reign and I slid off our dragons, taking care with how we approached the already skittish Viking. “You are not turning into a dragon. Reign, please tell him.” She nodded eagerly, red hair flying every which way, only further emphasizing her point.

“It’s true. We found the cave of the Lycanwing.” Popping up slightly, she rushed to Toothless’ saddle bag and removed the lenses. “It was just a myth to keep people away from these.”

Tuffnut shook his head vigorously, eyes focused on the stone beneath him.

“No. No! I don’t believe you,” he snapped, still trapped in some sort of delusion. “Look at me, I’m hideous. It’s terrifying!”

“Tuff, you’re not hideous,” Astrid contradicted, her tone warm and comforting. “Terrifying at times, yes. But hideous, no.” Slowly, Tuff’s hardened terror started to crumble.

“Well, then how do you explain this?” He shot his arm out, once again revealing the bite mark that had already started to heal, the insides of each of the small circles closer to the color of his flesh. “Can’t do it, can you? Hmm? That’s what I thought. Now, it’s time to fly!”

Thankfully, right when Tuff turned around, Snotlout emerged from the woods, dragging something in a canvas bag behind him.

“Wait, wait, wait!” he panted. “I can explain… I can explain it!”

“Whoa!” Tuff grimaced, taking in all of Snotlout’s bite marks and the bandage over his eye. “You look worse than I do.”

“Uh, Snotlout, what do you have in that bag?” I asked cautiously, noting how viciously whatever it was thrashed.

“I have what did this!” Much to my surprise, he pointed to a completely identical bite mark. Finally, we’d have an answer, and all of this could stop.

“The Lycanwing got him too!” Tuff yelped, still not catching on. “Save yourselves!”

“It’s not a Lycanwing,” Snotlout barked, frustrated. “It’s not even a dragon. It’s a wolf. And I caught him! You’re not turning into a dragon, Tuff.”

Finally, reality started to set in for him, and the crazed fear completely dried up and withered away, snapping him out of his own mind.

“I’m not?” The words coming from his own mouth sealed the deal. “I’m not!”

“We’ve been trying to tell you.” I tried my best to remain positive, given that we’d just managed to get him off the metaphorical ledge; now he just needed to get off the literal one.

“I just tried to make you think that,” Snotlout admitted. “But it’s not true. It’s funny, but it’s not true.”

When the smile returned to his face, Tuffnut took a step forward, ready to come back to his hut and rejoin the group. We’d gotten through, and for all intents and purposes, this was wrapped up.

That was, until the ground finally crumbled beneath him, denying him from taking another step forward. Reign pressed herself against me, terrified, as Toothless raced forward and grabbed onto Tuffnut’s foot—who, himself, managed to get a hold on Chicken just by her little foot. The world stood still for a moment, until Toothless pulled all of them back up, revealing an unharmed boy and his pet.

“Oh, thank Thor,” I sighed, though my grip on Reign didn’t let up for a moment.

Relieved, Ruff jumped at her brother and wrapped him up in a big hug, forcing smiles onto both their faces.

“I know what you’ll say. You realize how much you love me. You were scared you were gonna lose me. And I better never do that again,” Tuff gushed.

“Actually, I was just going to tell you what an idiot you are.” Even then, it was said with love.

My heart ached slightly when I noticed Reign shift beside me, her eyes falling to her now kicking feet. It didn’t take much for me to know what she was thinking, prompting me to pull her a little closer and place a kiss on the top of her head.

“Uh, Snotlout, where’s the wolf?”

My eyes widened at Astrid’s question, but we didn’t have to do much searching. Only a few seconds later, the furry creature jumped from the bushes and lunged for Snotlout, firmly gripping onto his arm with its teeth. As he screamed in pain, Reign let out a huff, then she made her way over and pried the wolf from Snotlout. When it tumbled to the ground, it snarled at her, bearing its teeth, but the moment she returned the gesture, it backed off and ran into the woods. Everyone blinked at her, completely baffled and amazed with what just happened, but she just shrugged at us.

“What?” Her eyes flickered back to Snotlout’s new wounds. “Okay, get Gobber to deal with those. Hiccup and I are going to call it a night?” I swallowed as she looked to me. “Right?”

“Absolutely,” I answered, a little terrified.

Everything felt wrapped up and peaceful when Reign and I finally settled down to sleep, the world falling into a soft calm for the time being. Still, I wasn’t surprised when, in the middle of the night, I felt her remove herself from my arms. The faint rustling of her getting dressed preceded the door to our hut opening and shutting; while I worried about her going out there on her own, I figured she’d be back in a couple minutes, just like always.

But it wasn’t until light was filtering in through our windows that I heard footsteps come up the ladder, and the flutter and clank of clothing and armor falling back to the floor echoed before she climbed under the covers. Over breakfast, I tried to ask her about it, genuinely concerned, but she just shrugged things off, claiming she needed to go for a flight to deal with a little insomnia.

That would’ve convinced me, had she made eye contact even once while making that statement.

Where exactly had she gone… and why wouldn’t she tell me?


	19. Snotlout Gets the Axe (Reign)

The calm breezes of the morning gently whistled against my ears and skin, providing the only disturbance in the environment to be found. For whatever reason, we’d been blessed this morning with nice weather, perfect for just standing around and staring at the sky, getting completely lost in whatever thoughts came to me. The arms held firm around my waist, and the head resting against my shoulder reminded me that, in that moment, I was safe.

…and the Snotlout and Hookfang that flew over our heads and chucked an axe at a target brought me back to the grim reality that, technically, we were at war with fierce and intelligent Dragon Hunters.

“Coming in hot,” he cheered as another strike landed on the worn and splintering targets. Though his technique was still sloppy, Snotlout’s aim was at least getting better. “Ha-ha. That’s right. Get some, Dragon Hunters. Get some. Snotlout, Snotlout! Oy, oy, oy!”

In all his cockiness and grandeur, Snotlout didn’t notice when a target he struck fell over. Normally, that wouldn’t be much of a concern, but Hookfang was too large to clear in time, meaning the wooden object fell straight onto his tail, startling him and halting their flight. The sudden force of the stop sent Snotlout flying from his dragon’s back, sliding along the stone ground of the arena until he halted right by the twins’ feet.

That was more on brand for Snotlout.

With faces unchanging, the twins each held up eight fingers, ranking his performance surprisingly high.

“The judge from Berserker Island gave you a six,” Tuff shrugged. My brows furrowed, unclear as to whether he was referring to me or not.

“Um, nice effort, Snotlout,” Hiccup encouraged, attempting to find something positive in that display. “We all need to stay sharp, especially with Dragon Hunters on the loose.” Snotlout offered the two of us a weak thumbs-up.

“Astrid, you’re up,” I announced. Donning a smirk, Astrid slung her axe over her shoulder, ready for her and Stormfly to nail this exercise. If there was anything the pair excelled at, it was efficient attacks.

“You should really loosen your grip a little, boy-o. It maximizes bone shattering potential.”

Approaching from behind Snotlout was none other than his father. None of us had seen him fly in, nor had we heard dragon wings flapping, and he wasn’t exactly the subtlest man; how had he managed to sneak past every one of us _and_ the Night Terrors?

“Dad?” Snotlout immediately jumped to his feet and straightened up.

“Spitelout!” Hiccup and I pushed away from each other, both out of courtesy and to focus on the bigger issue at hand here. “Uh… what a… what a pleasant surprise.”

Completely ignoring all of us, Spitelout immediately went for some of the spears we had stuck into the ground, running his fingers over the points. 

“Dull,” he scoffed, causing Snotlout to chuckle awkwardly.

“Yeah, I was just telling them that, Dad.” He started to approach the tall, intimidating man, who stared him down like he was just a tiny fly. “Hey, did you see that— “

“I come with news from Berk,” Spitelout announced, pushing his son back by his face. “There’s to be a union between two proud houses, our family, House Jorgenson, and…”

“What kind of muttonhead would marry into the Jorgensons?” Astrid muttered, causing both of us to laugh.

“…Astrid’s family, House Hofferson.”

Both of our brains shut down at the same time. I hadn’t known much about the families on Berk, but spending time in the Hofferson house made me _extremely_ aware that Hoffersons and Jorgensons never had and likely never would get along; the amount of times I heard Mr. and Mrs. Hofferson, or Astrid herself, complaining about the Jorgensons was enough to cement that in my mind.

“Wait, did he just say House Hofferson?” Astrid gasped once her voice found itself again.

“That is unprecedented!” Fishlegs exclaimed. For a moment, I’d forgotten there were other people that could hear this conversation. “There has never been a union between these two families. Hoffersons have always disliked Jorgensons, and—“

“Jorgensons have always irritated Hoffersons.” Astrid sounded as though she was about to go on a long rant, when suddenly, the realization of the implications of what was happening dawned on her. “Wait, this means Snotlout is gonna be family,” she gagged. Snotlout approached her with a cocky smirk, draping one arm over her shoulders.

“What’s the problem, ‘cuz? This is just gonna bring us closer.” Disgusted, Astrid elbowed him right in the sternum, momentarily knocking the wind out of him.

“Welcome to the family, lass.” Spitelout appeared pretty genuine in his excitement, despite the long-standing hatred between the clans. “Now, onto business.”

Spitelout’s Nadder approached him and crouched down, allowing him to take the object inside a purple square of silk. The sunlight caught the blade of a perfectly sharpened and polished axe, grand and beautiful in every way. The design etched onto it gave off a certain feel of elegance, fit for only the queen of Vikings. I rarely thought this about inanimate objects, but… this axe was _stunning_.

“The Jorgenson Family Ceremonial Axe,” Snotlout whispered, completely mystified by the weapon. “There’s never been a union without it.” The moment he tried to reach out and touch the thing, Spitelout slapped his son’s hand away.

“Aye,” he confirmed. “And, as you know, it will need to be present tomorrow at Berk’s sacred matrimonial sight, the Island of Frigga, to chop down the Betrothal Birch for this union to be official. So, you, Snotlout, will be delivering it.” With far more trust than Snotlout deserved, Spitelout passed the axe off to his son.

“That’s quite an honor, Snotlout,” Hiccup smiled, one of his arms returning to rest around my hips. 

“This privilege is only given to the bravest and most virile member of the Jorgenson clan,” Snotlout gushed, right before he swung the axe dangerously close to our faces. “And you guys are looking at him! Boom, baby! Whoo!”

“I would have done it myself, if I wasn’t already responsible for procuring the beasts for the union’s 400-boar feast,” Spitelout revealed, puffing out his chest proudly as Snotlout deflated a little.

“But I am the family’s natural second choice for the job.”

“Of course, Hedgelout wasn’t available. He’s still missing at sea.” Spitelout didn’t really understand what sparing feelings meant—something he passed down to his own son.

“Third choice,” Snotlout mumbled. “That’s still good, right?” Still, Spitelout kept going.

“And then there was Griplout.” Knowing what I did about the family, one specific detail about that man didn’t make this scenario make any sense.

“Griplout?” I questioned. “Are you talking about the Jorgenson that lost both his arms in that freak mutton accident?”

“Aye,” Spitelout confirmed, furthering this family’s crazy factor, “he just couldn’t get a good enough hold on the axe with his teeth.” Moving on from listing off ridiculous family members, Spitelout clapped his hands over Snotlout’s shoulders, staring him down pretty intensely. “Remember, there’s a lot riding on this, boy-o. No axe, no wedding. No wedding… well, hopefully you’re smart enough to at least figure that out.”

The ominous threat hung in the air, even after Spitelout announced he was leaving and started to head toward his dragon. Somehow, Astrid still found it in herself to make jokes, despite what had just been placed on someone who hadn’t really demonstrated himself as capable.

“Thank Thor I don’t have to go to that ridiculous—“

“Oh, lass.” Spitelout turned back around, remembering something previously discarded from his mind. “Your folks are expecting you to represent your family at the ceremony.”

Irony worked in mysterious ways.

Hiccup found himself chuckling at Astrid’s situation—something he probably shouldn’t have done.

“You, too, Hiccup,” Spitelout added.

“What? Me?” he gasped.

“Aye. Stoick’s orders. You’re representing the Haddocks.” Before I got a chance to say anything, I got singled out. “And Reign—“

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved my hand dismissively. “Hoffersons or Haddocks?”

“Haddocks,” Spitelout answered, causing something to churn in my chest. The implications of that were far greater than I think he realized. “See you at the ceremony!”

“Don’t worry, Dad! I got this!” Snotlout called out, and though he himself didn’t really sound that confident, it paled in comparison to the glares we shot him once he turned around. “What are you looking at? I can do this.”

He gestured out violently, causing the axe to fly from his hands any bury itself in a tree right outside the arena. Panic settled over his face rather quickly, and once he completely registered what he’d just done, he raced after the weapon.

“Don’t you just love union ceremonies?” Fishlegs gushed, completely ignoring what was going on behind him.

“Don’t know,” Tuffnut shrugged. “Never been to one.” I thought back a bit, but nothing came to my mind, either.

“I don’t actually think I’ve ever been to one, either.” I turned myself around, looking up at Hiccup. “I mean, I know we’ve been talking about things a lot recently, but all the information I’ve gotten came straight from you.”

Despite the fact I’d never attended one, I’d learned a great lot about Viking union ceremonies in the past couple of weeks. Something had changed in Hiccup and my mindsets, and we were ready to finally start talking about our own… even if we weren’t actually betrothed yet. It made me wonder when that was going to happen, but I feared asking about it. I wasn’t entirely sure I liked the conversation, either. Hiccup had been so linear on all this, sticking straight to the traditions of his people and nothing more. Granted, I knew nothing about what Berserkers did for union ceremonies, but I’d always figured we didn’t like traditional.

I guess there are some things you just can’t mess with. After all, the union had to be blessed in Valhalla by the gods, and there likely weren’t many ways one could go about that without upsetting them.

“Reign?”

I flinched, caught off-guard when Hiccup spoke up again, snapping me out of the trance I’d lulled myself into.

“Hm?”

“Astrid and I were just talking,” he informed me, “and with how far the Island of Frigga is from here, we probably need to leave really early tomorrow morning. So, we should probably get to sleep soon, that way we’re well rested for the long flight.”

Still only half with it, I managed to nod, and followed my friends up to the clubhouse. Tonight, Astrid prepared dinner, and once all was said and done, we all headed back to our own huts. I found myself staring up at the ceiling again, like most nights, but somehow, managed to drift off to sleep with the sun still sending warm beams of light onto our faces.

Snotlout was _far_ too eager to depart the next morning, bothering Hiccup and I the entire time we got ready. Thankfully, we managed to ditch him in order to get clean, but the moment we were back in our hut and dressed, he went right back to bugging us. We simply tried our best to ignore him and just go about the way we planned.

My hair was already starting to puff up and frizz as I stared at myself in the mirror. Under any other circumstances, I’d have been completely fine with it, but something told me I’d have to be more presentable for this occasion.

“What’s wrong, love?” Hiccup asked, wrapping his arms around my waist.

“My hair’s a mess,” I sighed, picking up a chunk and letting it drift back down slowly. “I just want to look nice for the union ceremony, but I’ve literally never been able to control it.”

I expected him to just listen and let me go on, the frustrations and complications of today hopefully reaching their apex. Gently, Hiccup began to run his fingers through my hair, moving most of it from around my face. It wasn’t inherently clear what he was doing at first, since he’d pulled my hair back behind me, but once the perfectly braided length fell over my shoulder, I felt a swell in the center of my chest.

“Where’d you learn to braid so well?” I whispered as I ran my hands over his craftsmanship, careful not to unravel even a single strand, save for the ones he’d purposefully left out, which framed my face.

“Every Haddock man has to know how to braid,” he explained. “That way, we can do these.” Hiccup pointed to the two small braids nestled in his own mop of hair, indicative of a future chief on Berk; once he stepped into the role, a third one would be added, as per tradition.

Overwhelmed with love, I turned around, resting my hands on his cheeks.

“Gods, I love you.” Hiccup leaned forward, resting our foreheads together.

“I love you more.”

“Are you two done up there?” Snotlout groaned with exasperation. “We have an axe to deliver.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but the two of us made our way down the ladder. Once we met up with Astrid, she completely ignored Snotlout, instead smiling at me.

“I feel like this should’ve been obvious, but red really suits you,” she complimented.

I blushed and tucked aside some of the loose hairs, muttering a ‘thanks’. According to Hiccup, it was a tradition that members of clans wear the same colors at Viking union ceremonies, so I slapped on one of Hiccup’s spare red tunics and determined that good enough.

“Yeah, yeah, she’s great,” Snotlout dismissed. “Now, let’s go.”

Snotlout’s pushing finally paid off, and the four of us set off for the Island of Frigga on our dragons. Despite the late start, we made fairly good progress, reaching about the halfway point by the time the sun painted the sky and clouds pink as it rose.

“Last one picked,” Snotlout scoffed. “He could have a little more faith in me than that.” He looked to Hiccup, Astrid, and I for approval, but the three of us just returned the gaze with unamused expressions. “What? What did I do?”

He was in for it now.

“There was that time you brought back all those Changewing eggs, and nearly destroyed the village,” Astrid reminded him. With a pout, Snotlout crossed his arms over his chest.

“Fishlegs’ fault,” he defended.

“That time you released the Skrill from its ice block, and nearly destroyed the village,” I added.

“Twins’ fault.” Snotlout spat.

“What about flying us into the waterspout and landing us on Outcast Island?” Hiccup snapped, creating the perfect trifecta of incidents Snotlout caused.

“Act of Thor.”

“Act of _Snotlout_ ,” Astrid corrected.

“All I know is that when I ride in with this axe, I’m gonna shove it in all their Jorgenson faces.” My heart jumped as he began to carelessly toss the sacred weapon from hand to hand. “Boom! ‘No axe, no wedding, boy-o— ‘”

With one, tiny slip, the axe fell from Snotlout’s hands, sending it tumbling down through the cloud barrier and completely out of our sight. Though we should’ve seen it coming, the move proved no less surprising and irritating.

“Toothless, power dive!” Hiccup groaned, prompting the rest of us to follow.

Snotlout was already panicking, recognizing the very real possibility that the axe could be lost forever.

“I don’t see it,” he quivered, giving in before we’d even made it through the clouds.

Once we were down at a closer level, a large island came into view. Given the angle, there was thankfully a good chance it had landed down there.

“It’s gotta be down there,” Snotlout insisted. “We have to go and get it back.”

“It could be anywhere,” Astrid countered, brining in the dose of reality as always. “That island isn’t exactly tiny. If it even landed there and not in the ocean.”

“We’re finding that axe. We have until sundown.”

I’d never seen Snotlout so authoritative before; there was something almost unsettling about how serious he’d become, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

Our quartet landed on a point of the island closest to us, our dragons forming a protective shield around us. The land was rife with vegetation, forcing Hiccup and I to swipe away anything in front of us with our swords. I could just start to feel the exhaustion setting in when everyone came to a stop.

“Hey, is it too late to call Griplout?” Astrid joked, despite being slightly out of breath.

“Ha-ha. That’s funny,” Snotlout deadpanned. “Keep it up, Astrid. Keep it up.”

A thick fog had settled in front of us, obscuring the view of anything on the path ahead. However, just over the line, above the bushes, something shiny caught Snotlout’s attention.

“Ha-ha! There it is!” he cheered. Sure enough, when we followed his point, we could see the axe protruding up over everything. “See? I’ll just grab it, and we’ll get back up in the air. Problem solved.”

It all sounded easy enough, but there was no way the axe would be that easy to get out of here—not just because of this group’s luck streak, but because it looked like it was wedged in something.

My worries were further confirmed when Shriek crouched lower to the ground and began to growl in the direction of the object of interest, followed by Toothless and Hookfang, then Stormfly.

“What is it, bud?” Hiccup inquired.

“What’s gotten into them?” Whatever the dragons sensed, it clearly posed a threat to all of us.

However, Snotlout remained undeterred, marveling over the fact the axe hadn’t been damaged. Still filled with optimism, he got a good grip on the handle and started to pull on it… but the weapon didn’t budge. Yet again, he gave it another yank, this trial yielding the same results. Suddenly, the ground beneath our feet trembled with a fury that threatened to split it right open. Our dragons’ growls and warning squawks grew louder as a large dragon, colored green and covered in a welded suit of armor, rose up and threw Snotlout from its back.

Its footsteps lumbered as the dragon arduously turned itself around, but it managed to lean down and bite at Snotlout with impressive speed. At the moment, its tactics indicated it was just trying to scare him off, but when he started running at the thing in a desperate attempt to get the axe, it started slamming its wings down. Despite all that, he managed to get back up and hang onto the axe again… at which point the dragon started to thrash itself around violently, giving its best effort to throw Snotlout off its back.

“Snotlout, let go of the axe!” I pleaded, not seeing this current plan as worth my friend’s life.

“No way, Reign,” he scoffed. “I’m not leaving this island without it.” 

The armor-coated dragon seemed to understand exactly what Snotlout said, and in response, took to the skies, twisting and spinning.

“He’s gonna get himself killed,” Astrid sighed as she ran to our sides.

“What else is new?”

The three of us jumped onto our dragons, speeding after the bucking and thrashing pair.

Upon realizing we were tailing it, the dragon whipped around and shot a powerful blast of blindingly bright fire straight in our direction, complete with enough advance warning for all of us to fly out of the way. Hookfang’s own fire enveloped the dragon, but the only being it seemed to damage was Snotlout himself.

“Keep blasting, Hookfang,” Hiccup encouraged, “we’ll get in close. Astrid, follow me; Reign, you and Shriek try to disorient it with noise, but don’t let it throw Snotlout off.” I nodded, then got my dragon and I in close enough for the sound to do some damage.

My hands remained glued over my ears as Shriek and Hookfang took turns screaming and shooting fire, creating cacophonies and bright bursts in the sky. I remained so focused on not knocking Snotlout off, I never really took a moment to contemplate what I should’ve done in case I got hit; I never got the chance, and when the dragon’s blast came barreling straight for Shriek and I, all I could do was pull on her saddle and resist as hard as I could before she slammed onto the ground.

I expected to see some sort of blackness on her scales from soot when I came around in front of her, but instead, I just noticed her pupils were completely constricted, making her nearly blind. Astrid crashed down just a moment later, with Stormfly demonstrating the exact same problem as Shriek.

“Hiccup, that blast does a number on the eyes,” I warned, hoping he could hear me from where he and Toothless were flying.

I watched anxiously, unconsciously twisting the silver pendant of my necklace between my fingers as Hiccup and Toothless evaded the fire for a while. It actually looked like they might be able to get in and remove Snotlout, when Toothless hesitated for just a moment, and the dragon took its shot, sending the both of them tumbling to the ground. I rushed straight for Hiccup, who rolled across the grass with admittedly impressive grace, and helped him off the ground, doing a quick once-over for any injuries. Once we determined he was fine, the two of us made our way to Toothless to check on him.

Before we really got the chance to catch our breath, the dragon providing a scourge over our existence landed and roared at us, prepping another blast. Thinking fast, I removed the shield from my back, and Hiccup reached over Toothless’ saddle to do the same.

“Hang on, bud. Things are about to heat up.”

The two of us crouched on the ground next to each other, blocking the blast with the Gronckle Iron against our arms. The radiating intensity of the flame caused a single bead of sweat to run down my face, but it never threatened to break through the barrier Hiccup and I created, and when the flames died down, everyone was left unscathed.

“Whew!” Hiccup exclaimed, this time helping me to my feet. “Thank you, Gronckle Iron.”

Hookfang—the only one of our dragons that didn’t manage to get hit—continued to fire at the dragon as Snotlout _still_ held onto the axe.

“Don’t let up, Hookfang!” Astrid praised. “Pour it on!”

Another shot from Hookfang, and the dragon finally gave up, throwing Snotlout into the bushes before taking off and leaving our sight completely. Sure, we hadn’t gotten the ceremonial axe back, which was the ultimate goal of going after this dragon, but at least Snotlout was alive and in one piece.

“It’s gone.”

“But so is the axe!” Snotlout whined. His determination never wavered, pushing him to start running after the dragon yet again.

“Snotlout, what are you doing?” Hiccup demanded.

“There’s still time!”

He was stupid, none of us would deny that… but there was a lot riding on this, and the responsibility that had been laid on him wasn’t one to take lightly. The sun stood firm, right above our heads, and the island was still a good way away. The chance of getting there was unlikely, but we couldn’t just give up and call it when we hadn’t given it our all.

Astrid immediately read the looks on Hiccup and my faces and recoiled.

“No,” she stated firmly.

“Astrid, we have to,” I begged.

“This is his mess,” she snapped, unwilling to loosen her vice grip on her stance. “Let him clean it up.”

Rather than attempting to fight her verbally, I simply stared her down, raising an eyebrow and holding firm. Hiccup matched the look I wore, and our dragons even joined in, greatly outnumbering her until we finally guilted her into at least reluctantly agreeing.

“Fine.”

We let our dragons track down Snotlout, finding him crouched behind some bushes and spying on something. In the cove in front of him, that armored dragon was going about its more normal activities, picking up loose pieces of metal and setting them on its back.

“There he is.” Hiccup, Astrid, and I slid toward the bushes and took our place next to Snotlout, hoping he’d been watching this thing long enough to pick up on some patterns or information that could be useful.

All of us flinched and covered our eyes as the dragon turned its head back and used some of its fire to weld another shield to the armor attached to its back.

“If it welds my axe to its body, I’ll never get it back,” Snotlout lamented, the noose slowly tightening for all of us. He stood up, ready to go back in, but that would be too great of a risk, so I reached up and yanked him back.

“Easy, Snotlout,” I cautioned. “We can’t risk another dust-up with ol’ ‘Armor Wing’ over there.” I was well aware of the inspired look that overtook Hiccup’s face, likely because I’d just accidentally named the dragon, but I chose to ignore it in favor of trying to fix this situation.

“I cannot go to the wedding without the axe.”

“But, we can’t get close enough to pry it free,” Astrid reasoned. Snotlout’s eyes began to bounce vigorously inside his skull, before he finally was able to look back and make eye contact with Hiccup.

“Hey, you know what’s near here?” He reached one hand out to the Viking opposite him. “Hiccup, hand me your map.”

Slightly confused and concerned, Hiccup reached into Toothless’ saddle bag and removed the rolled piece of parchment. Snotlout scanned over the drawings for a moment, before his face lit up completely.

“Ha! That’s it!” He laid the map down so he could show the rest of us what he was thinking.

“What’s ‘it’?” Hiccup asked warily.

“We can’t get close to that dragon, but something else can.” His vague words were the opposite of helpful in this moment.

“You know, you never really make much sense, but this is bad, even for you,” I declared, shaking my head at the map.

“We have an axe to steal, and I know the perfect guys for the job. We’re going to Breakneck Bog and we’re training us some Smothering Smokebreaths.”

I glanced at Hiccup, unsure of how exactly that would go. The last time we’d seen the Smothering Smokebreaths, they did whatever they pleased, going untrained and untamed by our group. We’d tried our best, but the little monsters had minds of their own, leaving them too frustrating to even contemplate attempting to make part of the family of Berk’s dragons.

And yet, somehow, we found ourselves following Snotlout to the cave where the Smothering Smokebreaths resided, ready to lure them toward the island where the Armor Wing awaited.

“Can I remind everyone that Smothering Smokebreaths cannot be trained?” Astrid shouted, reading my mind.

“Maybe, but they love metal and could be the only hope that I have of getting that axe back.” Though the plan still stood on shaky legs, it was the only one we had at this point.

With no other options to rely on, we made our way into the cave and began to pull at whatever metal objects the dragons could get. Most of them were too close together, or somehow attached to each other, but we could at least get enough to make them follow us.

“They must be out hunting,” I thought aloud. “We got lucky.”

“This is perfect! We’ll use whatever metal we pull to lure them to the Armor Wing.”

Astrid pulled off a strange ball of metal from the pile, but unfortunately, it looked like that was all Stormfly could carry for now.

“We have to work faster.” Hiccup’s eyes darted around, catching the entrance of the cave often. “They won’t be happy when they see what we’re doing.”

Irony dug her heels in yet again, and the chitters of the Smokebreaths entered the cave just faintly… but it was enough to make Astrid and my hearts jump.

“Uh, guys?”

It was enough to get Hiccup and Snotlout’s attention, but not before it was too late. A cloud of smoke barreled into the cave, before breaking off into four smaller plumes that headed straight for each of us, swarming around our heads and pulling at any metal we had. Suffering from the flashbacks of last time, I immediately moved my hand to grip my necklace tightly, unwilling to let them get one of my most precious items again. With my free hand, I swatted at the nuisance, keeping it from touching the hairstyle that had been so lovingly crafted not too long ago.

“Grab all the metal you can!” Snotlout’s words barely registered over all the noise, but I managed to reach down and snatch a rusting shield.

“Let’s get these guys to the Armor Wing. Hookfang! Wing blast!”

The powerful flap of the Monstrous Nightmare’s wingspan cleared away the smoke enveloping the small dragons, giving us an easier means of escape. The Smokebreaths trailed well behind us as we headed back in the direction of the island where the Armor Wing resided.

“Is this the best idea I’ve ever had, or what?” Snotlout’s pride remained misplaced.

“Bar’s not really too high on that one is it, Snotlout?” Hiccup teased, causing Astrid and I to laugh. Snotlout floundered for some sort of a witty response, but as in all situations, he came up completely barren.

“Yeah, well, your bar’s so… shut up, Hiccup.”

Breakneck Bog completely faded behind us, giving way to the ocean until we finally got back to the home of our current problem.

“Just a little further,” Snotlout coaxed the tiny dragons. “You’re gonna be happy we ripped you off.” Finally, we reached the grove filled with metal and a very angry dragon. “Feast your beady eyes on that!”

At first, the Smokebreaths only went for the metal piled up on the ground, but that was enough to disturb the Armor Wing and draw him out of his cave. He roared and shot fire in an attempt to scare the little things off, but they were far more tenacious than they looked, and instead headed straight for the dragon’s protective equipment.

The world looked as though it brightened a little when one of the Smokebreaths got its teeth around the axe, managed to yank it free and headed straight for us. Once it was close enough, Snotlout reached out his hand… but the Smokebreath took a sharp turn upwards, taking the item completely out of our reach.

“Hey, my axe!” Snotlout whined. “We had a deal you little deal breakers.”

Snotlout and Hookfang immediately turned tail to chase after the prize, and in a surprising twist, Astrid headed after them just seconds later, leaving Hiccup and I to make sure nothing went too far between the Armor Wing and the Smokebreaths. For a while, everything looked relatively harmless, until seemingly out of nowhere, more Smokebreaths showed up, overwhelming the large dragons.

“There’s too many of them.” Hiccup cast his eyes to me. “We need to break this up.”

Before either of our dragons got the chance to move, one of the Smokebreaths removed a bludgeon from the Armor Wing’s tail, revealing pink and vulnerable skin.

The revelation of why this dragon took the axe hit me head-on.

“No scales,” I observed. “That’s why it needs metal.”

“What’s happening?” Hiccup and I turned to see Snotlout and Astrid approaching, the former holding the ceremonial axe in his hands with a death grip.

“The Smokebreaths think the Armor Wing is one giant piece of metal. We can’t let them pull its armor apart. It’ll be defenseless.”

“So, what do we do?” Thankfully, it looked like Hiccup he had an idea.

“Follow me.”

Our four dragons approached one of the piles of metal, watching as Toothless plucked something off the top.

“We have to fly it through the Armor Wing’s blasts.” The moment that sentence left his mouth, alarm bells went off in my mind.

“We have to _what_?” Despite my worry, Hiccup’s plan remained unchanging.

“Trust me.”

Today was just the day of crazy plans that were our only option. Shriek nabbed a cup formerly attached to a catapult and a mace, then she flipped herself sideways, allowing the Armor Wing to heat it up. Hiccup and Toothless started to form a large mass with the molten metal we dropped, and eventually, the lump was large enough for the pair to pick up—and just in time, too. The Smokebreaths had nearly picked the Armor Wing clean, causing it to collapse.

“Hey, Smokies, check this out.”

Snotlout gestured toward Hiccup and Toothless, who remained hovering in the air. Sure enough, the large amounts of shiny metal drew the Smokebreaths away from the dragon, and they managed to get a hold on the ball to carry it back towards home.

That just left the issue of the defenseless Armor Wing. Though it had caused many, many problems today, none of us could leave it weak and in pain on good conscious. As a symbol of peace, each of our dragons dropped a piece of metal near the Armor Wing, with Hiccup and Toothless approaching the dragon directly. It managed to get to its feet before taking the piece of siding and setting it on its back.

We still had to cover our eyes to prevent going blind, but it was less irritating this time.

“Now I think we earned its trust, but I wouldn’t push our luck.”

Astrid’s eyes wandered up toward the sky, taking note of the sun’s precarious position.

“Sundown!” she gasped. “Snotlout, you need to get out of here.”

“She’s right. Go,” Hiccup pushed. “We’ll be right behind you.”

Darkness had completely settled over the sky by the time we reached the Island of Frigga, serving as the perfect backdrop for the scene that greeted us: any piece of furniture imaginable had been smashed to pieces, with boars running about wherever they pleased and a very tense Spitelout staring off toward the horizon.

All of this… over one axe?

“Snotlout, we’ll say it was our fault,” Hiccup volunteered as he, Astrid, and I made our way over to our friend.

“Yeah. We can say we’re the ones that made you late,” Astrid offered.

However, Snotlout shook his head.

“No. This was my fault. I got this.”

Snotlout approached his dad with an unflinching sort of gusto, speaking loud enough for us to hear.

“I know what you’re going to say, Dad. I messed up again. I ruined the union ceremony. And I let you down, and all the Jorgensons down. But you have no idea what I went through to get this here. I risked my life and my friends’ lives fighting a gigantic, torch-breathing dragon for this stupid thing. And if that’s not good enough for you, then I guess I’m never going to be good enough. I said it! So, here is your stupid axe, and I’m sorry about the ceremony!”

I feared Spitelout’s unchanging expression meant he was about to unload on his son, until he suddenly relaxed completely.

“What in Thor are you going on about, boy-o?” he laughed. “There’s not going to be a union.” My brows furrowed. That dissolved quickly.

“Wait, what?”

“A brawl broke out at the rehearsal dinner. It’s a good thing you didn’t get that axe here earlier. It would’ve got really ugly. But, nice work anyway, Son. I knew I could count on you.” The two paused for a moment, basking in the affectionate silence. “Whelp, if we’re done here, I have 400 boars to return.”

I rolled my eyes, realizing everything had been a waste. Still, it would be nice to sleep in my own bed tonight, rather than on the hard ground. Besides, something good came out of this, which dawned on me on the flight home.

“Hey.” Hiccup turned his attention to me, smiling. “I guess this means, barring any surprise betrothals, the first union ceremony I’ll be attending… is ours.”

Both of us just stayed silent, but our grins indicated that was officially in the near future’s picture. And, for the first time, I liked the sound of that.

I’d fully expected that we’d be able to just get back to the Edge and call it a night, but the moment we spotted Tuffnut riding on Meatlug, with a large amount of Fishlegs’ things piled up outside his hut, I remembered nothing could ever be normal with us.

“What in the name of Thor?” Hiccup groaned.

Things only got stranger when we landed, and Tuff claimed he and Meatlug were related.

“Eh, guys, what’s going on?”

“Hiccup, meet the Ingerman-Thorstons,” Tuff announced proudly. “We’re the model of a modern Viking family.”

My hand slapped over my forehead, completely exasperated.

“We’ve only been gone a day. What possibly could have happened?”

“You remember how I studied with the town officiator back on Berk?” Something like that registered in the back of my brain. “While you guys were gone, I accidentally married Ruff and Fishlegs. But despite that little snafu, we’re all very happy now.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or just turn around and head home.

“I hate to break it to you, but you can’t perform Viking unions,” Astrid reminded him.

“Wait, what? I can’t? Are you sure?”

“You never completed your training because the officiator jumped off a cliff during your first lesson,” Snotlout laughed. “That was so funny.”

“Right,” Tuff drawled, the memory returning to him, “it was probably a bad idea to hold classes on the edge of a cliff. I mean, we lost a lot of good educators that way, especially the ones I pushed.”

The absurdity of this all further increased when Barf and Belch emerged with Ruff and Fishlegs on their heads.

“Wait, why are you here?” Fishlegs questioned, staring at the four of us. “Shouldn’t you be at the union?”

“Long story,” Snotlout grumbled.

“But we did find a new dragon,” Hiccup beamed, causing Fishlegs to gasp.

“A new dragon? Great, I get married and no one calls me anymore.”

“Fishlegs!” Ruff called down. “My feet need massaging. They’re getting sweaty again.”

This… was so wrong, for so many reasons. Thankfully, I didn’t see any chance Hiccup and I could ever turn into this horror show.

“Coming, dear,” Fishlegs whimpered. Luckily for him, Tuffnut intervened with an out at that moment.

“Hey, bro-in-law, remember how I married you and Ruff? Well, it turns out I can’t marry people after all. So, presto! Union dissolved.” Fishlegs began to jump with glee.

“What? Oh, that’s incredible! I haven’t been this happy since my wedding day.”

Suddenly, a nostalgic sentimentality settled over his and Ruff’s faces as they looked to each other. She reached out and nuzzled their noses, then slapped him, but he still kept his smile.

“Aw, my door is always open,” he sighed.

“And I guess you can keep the shark.”

I was still attempting to process everything as it resolved.

“Fishlegs… married Ruffnut.” Despite it all, I laughed. “I guess anything is possible.”

“Well, one thing’s for certain: no Hofferson will ever marry a Jorgenson,” Hiccup shrugged.

“Never say never, right, Astrid?” Snotlout chuckled.

“Never,” she snapped coldly.

Sensing I’d had just about enough of all this, Hiccup draped an arm over my shoulders and pulled me closer.

“You ready to get out of here?” he whispered.

“Gods, yes. Let’s get away from this _now_.”

Even so, I smiled at my friends as Hiccup and I headed home.


	20. The Zippleback Experience (Hiccup)

Arctic winds snapped and spat at my face, occasionally threatening to push me off the back of Toothless altogether; that would’ve been a problem normally, but given the fact Shriek and Toothless were holding a net with a boulder precariously balanced inside, it added a dangerous bonus. Occasionally, I found myself looking to her, all bundled up in her cold weather gear, but it seemed like Dragon’s Edge didn’t get cold enough for her to start shutting down, even in the snowy mountains.

“All right, guys. Let’s drop the foundation right about here!” I called back to Astrid and Fishlegs, whose dragons held the other net. Careful not to throw our dragons off balance, each pair dropped off their boulder, but they kept a hold on the net. “That should work. Perfect location.” I looked to Fishlegs, thanking him for his scouting.

“I, for one, couldn’t be happier that we’re finally—“

“Setting up a new watchtower,” Snotlout interjected, rolling his eyes and groaning. “We know. We’ve been hearing about it for the past… oh, I don’t know, week, month… what comes next?”

“Guys, look, this is important.” Reign’s tone turned stern, staring down all of us with an intense mix of fury and annoyance in her jade eyes. “We’ve been seeing ships off the northern coast that have absolutely no reason to be there. Now with this, we can send an early warning signal if they come into our waters.”

Everyone else knew to just leave it at that as we landed, but just like his dad, Snotlout didn’t know when to stop.

“If you’re talking about Dagur and Ryker, who I assume we’re talking about—“

“Snotlout, you need to drop it,” I warned.

“How about this?” he shouted. “Whoever’s out there that shouldn’t be out there, let’s just get on these very effective fire-breathing war machines, and go out and blast them into oblivion.”

“Because that’s not who we are,” I scoffed. “Since when do we go blasting people into oblivion?” Completely dodging the question, Snotlout gave Hookfang’s horns a reassuring pat.

“Don’t worry, Hookster. He doesn’t speak for us.” A cry of joy interrupted us, diverting our attention to the twins, who were currently sliding down the side of the mountain on Barf and Belch. “Or them. Definitely not for them.”

In their usual reckless and uncaring manner, the twins sped down through the snow, kicking up chunks of the substance and creating clouds of cold dust behind them. The heads of their dragon spat out flames, furthering the danger they were putting themselves and the rest of the island in.

“Those two muttonheads better not bring all that snow up there down on us,” Astrid huffed.

“It’s not the snow I’m worried about,” I admitted, watching as more of the stuff kicked up, nearly covering the danger barreling down the side of the mountain. “It’s the ice!”

Reign and Astrid took to the sky, heading for the twins who had been knocked off the back of their dragon and buried head-first in the snow, plucking them out with their dragons and carrying them off to safety. However, in the scuffle, they’d become separated from Barf and Belch, leaving the Zippleback still tumbling down the mountain, the avalanche creeping closer by the second. Of course, the ice wasn’t the only issue, proven by the drop-off that trapped the dragon between one bad option or the other. Before anyone would’ve had the chance to contemplate it, a green flash went tumbling off the cliff; in order to catch them in time, I had to thrust the tail control forward with a great amount of force, but Toothless caught them right in time, and we were able to deliver Barf and Belch back to safety. I flinched as they began to nudge and lick the back of my head.

“Okay, I get it,” I laughed. “You’re welcome.” I started to step off the back of Toothless, completely unaware that my metal foot had been bent out of shape in the chaos.

“Uh, Hiccup, I wouldn’t do that if I were—“

Cutting herself off mid-sentence, Reign jumped off the back of her dragon and raced toward me, managing to get a hold on my shoulders just before I tried to take a step and lost my balance. The two of us crouched down, dangerously close to hitting the snow from the sudden force, before she managed to pick the two of us back up again.

Though she had a firm grip on me, it clearly wasn’t good enough for Barf and Belch, who plucked me straight from her arms and dangled me in the air, preventing me from even having the chance to set down my bent foot.

“Uh, can you put me down, guys?” I stuttered. Thankfully, they listened, and Reign set me back on her shoulders, aiding me in reaching Toothless’ saddle bag. “And it’s for moments like these that I always carry a spare.” I unwound the rope on the broken foot and passed the useless device off to Reign, then secured the shiny, new one in place.

With necessities taken care of, Reign and I turned and glared at the twins, waiting for them to attempt and explain what exactly made them think sliding down the mountainside on their large dragon was a good idea. They remained silent for a while, clearly hoping that we would let up, but I just shifted so that we were leaning against Toothless, still pulled close against each other.

“So, if that’s all you need from us, then we’ll just be going back to…” The pair attempted to sneak off, but they weren’t going to just get away with this.

“Toothless?” My Night Fury shot a single plasma blast at the twins’ feet, stopping them from leaving.

“Hey, your dragon just shot at us,” Tuffnut accused, pointing straight at us.

“Yes, I know,” I shrugged. “I told him to.”

“Not cool, T. Not cool at all.” My anger began to rise as they pointed in our direction, pushing me away from my dragon and straight in front of the twins.

“Anyway, since you two seem so eager to spend some time away from the group, you get to pull the first two shifts of patrol duty.” Was it the most fitting punishment for creating an avalanche and nearly getting themselves and their dragon killed? Maybe not. But I knew how much they hated having to do a job.

“He’s really become a tyrant,” Ruff mumbled, probably thinking only her brother could hear her.

“Power’ll do that to you,” Tuffnut scoffed.

Thousands of retorts and comebacks came to mind, but I instead opted to just get on my dragon and move on with my day. Besides, Reign was holding up against the cold pretty well, but I could see tiny shivers starting to run through her, and I didn’t want to push anything and risk any harm to her whatsoever. Everyone but the twins headed back for our huts, and I already had something to do once Reign and I got home.

“This leg needs to be filed down,” I sighed, applying pressure to the wood, “it’s pinching me.”

I opened the door to our hut, completely caught off guard when a large pile of fish suddenly came tumbling down over me. Reign managed to jump back in time, only getting hit on the foot with some collateral that rolled off the pile, but I ended up completely buried, overwhelmed by the foul stench as my blood began to boil.

“Oh, for the love of Thor! Who did this?”

“Do you really need to ask that?” I could tell Reign was trying her best to hold back laughter, which only furthered my frustration.

“Ruff? Tuff? Oh, I’ve got another shift with your names on it!” I seethed. Something about that sent Reign over the edge, and she burst into fits of giggles, while Toothless and Shriek started to down the fish, excited about their unexpected snack. “Really? You’re eating the evidence?”

“They’re dragons,” Reign chuckled. “What did you expect?”

“Would you please just help me out of here?” I groaned.

“Fine, fine.”

Reign grimaced from the smell, then started to dig through the pile, primarily throwing the fish into the water below—although, I saw her sneak a few extras toward Toothless and Shriek. The pile went pretty deep, but I finally felt myself coming loose, just enough that Reign could probably pull me out… which gave me the perfect opportunity to get her back.

“Okay, I think I can get out of here if you help me.”

She extended a hand down, and once I got a firm grip on her and she helped me out, I collapsed down on top of her, causing her to squeal and scream as the smell of fish seeped into her clothes and hair. Her laughter danced through the peace of the afternoon, complete with occasional protests as I pressed kisses against exposed skin or shifted a bit to pretend I was further spreading the smell.

“Hiccup, you’ve proved your point.” With that, I got off and helped her up from the ground. “Now, come on, we’ve got to clean… everything.”

The twins’ shenanigans hadn’t been forgotten, even hours later, when our clothing finally dried and we were able to go look for them. Reign and Shriek hung close to Toothless and I, keeping their eyes out in the opposite direction of ours.

“All right, where are they?” I grumbled. “I guess you just look for a fire or any other catastrophe, they’ll be close by.”

I’d been so focused on the ground beneath us that I didn’t even consider the possibility that the twins could be flying around, until something zipped by over our heads, gone in the blink of an eye. I glanced around, confused and a little uneasy, but the moment I looked forward, it turned to panic. Reign cried out and steered Shriek out of the way just before Barf and Belch made contact with Toothless and I, scooping me off my dragon’s back. Without his rider, Toothless began to flail and fall toward the ground. Although Shriek and Reign dove the minute they noticed, she couldn’t steer him.

“B-Belch! No, no, no, you drop me! You drop me right now!”

Following the command literally, Belch simply let his jaw go slack, and I immediately slipped away, tumbling down toward the earth. I managed to steer myself right to Toothless, given how much experience I had with this, and I opened his tail in time to at least lessen the blow of our landing a little. As I picked myself up from the bushes, I heard Reign and Shriek land, and I felt an arm reach into the leaves and help me to my feet. Her eyes were wide with terror, constantly searching me for any signs of an injury, so I squeezed her hand in an attempt to assure her I was okay.

“You need to stop falling down and getting stuck today,” she joked, her voice still a little weak.

“Well, at least I’m all here.” My eyes wandered down when I tried to take a step, realizing something didn’t feel right. “And I spoke too soon.” I reached down and removed the peg leg, once again setting it in Reign’s hands so I could retrieve the new one. “Don’t worry. I always carry a spare for my spare.”

“I’d call you a dork, but this scenario proves the millions of spares are actually necessary.”

Before I got the chance to put the new foot on, Barf and Belch landed in front of me, gurgling and cocking their heads as they spat fish down at Reign’s and my feet. At first, we just gagged and stared down at the offering, but events from earlier slowly started to make sense.

“Wait a minute, it was you guys? You left us all that fish?”

“I don’t think it was for me, babe.” I raised an eyebrow at Reign. “Think about it. Whenever they’ve been in front of us, they’ve only been interested in you.”

“Okay, but if they’re here, and the twins are Thor knows where, then who’s patrolling the island?”

Reign’s eyes went wide immediately, prompting me to put the new foot on as quick as possible. The moment she could let go of me, she jumped onto her dragon and took off, circling around Dragon’s Edge far more times than necessary. We were just encroaching the fourth wrap around, when I flew Toothless in front of her and Shriek, startling her enough to stop them both. Trying my best to ignore the Barf and Belch hovering nearby, I flew Toothless a little closer to her, lacing our fingers together.

“Reign, hon, no one’s here,” I assured her. “The twins should’ve been on watch, but thankfully, there was no need, okay?”

“Dagur and Heather are clever, Hiccup… even if one has more of a brain than the other.” Her half-hearted attempt at a joke made me smile. “They’ll be able to find some sort of way in that we didn’t think of.”

“But they’re not here now. Let’s head back to the Edge, get the twins their dragon, and we can relax for a while. I think we’ve earned it.”

I kept our hands locked together, and we led Barf and Belch back toward the training arena, where the twins were arguing with each other… instead of doing their job. They still acted like nothing was wrong, smiling at the two of us when we landed.

“You guys found ‘em!” Ruff cried, the pair running straight for their dragon. “Where did you two go? You had us worried sick.” I paid no mind when Barf and Belch pushed the twins away and started to run.

“Where’d they go?” I jumped as Reign shouted at the twins, uncharacteristically angry. I’d never seen her like this before, and it was genuinely frightening. “Well, let’s start with they filled our hut with fish, crashed Hiccup and Toothless out of the sky. And for the finale, they broke his second spare leg.”

“So, if my calculations are correct, and they usually are…”

“…that would mean our dear Hiccup is on his… last leg!” The twins devolved into laughter, but they were the only ones that found the joke funny. “Get it? See what we did? It’s because of your leg. You don’t have any more.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I dismissed. “Listen.” I slid off Toothless, momentarily letting my hand slip from Reign’s.

“Well, if you wanna flip the script, the new leg is slimming,” Ruffnut complimented.

“Not that you need to be slimmed. I mean, I think, for your height, you’re an ideal weight.” Rolling my eyes, I pushed Barf and Belch back toward their riders.

“The four of you belong together. Now, please, can you get back on patrol and just try to keep these two—Well—oh, just go.” I shook my head, getting back up onto Toothless. “Last leg.” From below me, I felt my dragon chortle. “Oh, don’t laugh, Toothless. You’re above that.”

We’d barely gotten into the air, when I noticed something moving behind Reign and I. Warily, I glanced back, and became filled with annoyance yet again when Barf and Belch revealed themselves.

“You ready for some quick flying?” I whispered to Reign. She looked like her mind was only half with her, but she still was able to nod. “Okay, let’s ditch the Zippleback.”

I led Reign and Shriek down through the tunnels we typically used for Beat the Dome, but Barf and Belch remembered how to navigate down there perfectly, and the moment we shot up through the crack in the training arena, the Zippleback emerged and kept up their pursuit.

“Oh, get away from me, you crazy dragon!”

Both dragons managed to keep up for a while, until Toothless and Shriek darted suddenly around the corner, managing to lose Barf and Belch for the time being. They halted in the air, glancing at each other, then flew right past us.

“I think we lost ‘em,” I sighed. Unfortunately, my relief was short-lived, when a second later, I heard the familiar grown of a Zippleback over our heads. “And they’re behind me, right?”

Despite all our efforts, Reign and I couldn’t get rid of the dragon, giving us no room to just take it easy during the day. Making and eating dinner turned into a much bigger hassle than it needed to be, and neither of us felt comfortable even taking off our armor before bed, the heads of Barf and Belch staring at us from the edge of our platform. Reign had reasoned that if we pretend to go to sleep, they might lose interest and leave, and then we could actually get comfortable.

We should’ve known that wasn’t what would happen. Right when Reign and I closed our eyes, and I draped a leg over hers, the entire house began to shake, throwing us both from the bed completely. Panicked and slightly dazed, we both crawled over to the edge of the platform, where we could see Barf and Belch stomping in circles, right before they released their gas and started to spark it.

The large explosion knocked us both down, and the smoke made it near impossible to find the door. I thought a breath of fresh air might help with the dizziness, but once the oxygen hit my lungs, I felt my legs give out beneath me, yet again saved from hitting the ground by Reign, who balanced my head against her legs. It took me a moment to collect myself again, but once I did, fury shot me back up… only for me to get smothered by the two-headed dragon.

“All right, that’s it!” Reign jumped to her feet, pushing away Barf and Belch. “You two stay outside. _Stay_.” I tried to stand with her, but by final spare leg had been damaged, meaning she had to help me. “I’ll help you into bed, and then I’ll send a Terror Mail for Gobber to come by tomorrow and fix your leg. Now, we should at least try and get some sleep before tomorrow.”

Had I not been so exhausted, I would’ve questioned where this new intensity in her spirit came from.

I kept my arm secured around Reign’s shoulders, using them and the hand she rested against my chest for support as Gobber pounded away on my spare legs. For a moment, my eyes drifted up, bringing my attention to the fact that Barf and Belch had grabbed the other two legs.

“Hey! Give me those.” When I tried to take them from Barf and Belch’s mouths, they nuzzled me, pushing Reign out of the way.

“What is this?” Tuffnut scoffed.

“A neck hug?”

“I never got a neck hug.”

“So, you ruined all your legs, eh?” Gobber asked as he continued to pound on the one on his anvil. “Every single one?”

“Well, all except this piece of garbage.” I gestured down to the piece of wood Reign and I had tied to my leg as a substitute. “Which, let’s be honest, can we really call it a leg? I mean…”

“Uh.” Gobber stuck his leg out, reminding us he’d worn that kind since long before we were born.

“Oh, right.” I felt my cheeks turn red. “Of course we can. It’s very slimming on you, Gobber.” My stuttering was interrupted by Barf and Belch leaning down and licking the top of Toothless’ and my heads.

“Really? Right in front of our faces?” Tuffnut lamented.

“We’re here, you know! Right here!”

“That’s weird,” Fishlegs muttered. “Zipplebacks are usually fiercely loyal. Why are they doting on Hiccup and ignoring you two?”

“Didn’t Hiccup pull them out of the way of a deadly avalanche?” Gobber inquired, clearly thinking about something that none of us knew.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“Well, there you go,” he shrugged, momentarily pausing his work. “Same thing as my cousin, Bard. He saved a Zippleback from a Changewing. The two-headed beast wouldn’t leave him alone… for years.”

That… wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, especially as I watched Barf and Belch shove Reign away yet again.

“So, this could go on for—“

“Ever,” Gobber finished. “It’s a life debt. Barf and Belch will now serve Hiccup for the rest of their lives, or until the debt is repaid. Whichever comes first.”

It only took me a second to recognize the implications of that.

“Does this mean we could be stuck with Barf and Belch forever?” I gasped, dread settling deep into my stomach.

“Does this mean we could _lose_ Barf and Belch forever?” The twins’ already sullen expressions fell further.

“Yes, and yes.”

I stayed swirling in the horrible, terror-inducing implications, meanwhile Reign was already racking her brain, trying to conjure up something.

“We just need to make sure the debt is repaid.” My eyes widened as I stared up at her. “ _Without_ putting you in any real danger. Relax.”

Unfortunately, the twins were our best option on this. Neither of us were good at scheming when it didn’t come to something more traditional like defense or attacks, and although Ruff and Tuff tended to go a bit too far, I trusted that Reign would make sure they were put in their places. Together, the four of us drew up a list of a few ideas that might conceivably work, should any one of them fail, and once Gobber finished fixing my legs, we got to work. Setup was relatively easy, but making sure this would all be believable for Barf and Belch was where I already knew I would struggle.

The first plan failed miserably. The idea had been that I would get caught hanging on a rope, and Barf and Belch would get me down, but instead, the Zippleback stared at me, hanging upside-down by my good foot, then started to hit me back and forth with their heads, only furthering the danger I’d been put in when the movement caused the rope to snap, and I fell to the ground.

Next came the attempt at getting Barf and Belch to push me out of the way of an impending avalanche of logs. At first, everything was going as planned: Barf and Belch appeared completely unaware this was a setup, Reign and Shriek were poised and ready if this went south, and the path of trajectory the twins predicted for the logs ended up working. The twins’ dragon came running straight for me, but their ability to pay attention wasn’t the best, and they ended up getting stuck against a tree, unable to figure out why they couldn’t just run straight through it. I froze, unsure of what to do as the logs were nearly within arms’ reach, when Reign and Shriek swooped in, taking me out of harm’s way.

Various other attempts yielded nearly the same results, failing up until the sun set, and Reign demanded that we stop. Sleep didn’t come easy, and when I awoke the next morning, the woman next to me was still dead asleep, so I decided to head out on my own; maybe I’d be able to think of something if I went on a flight with Toothless for a while.

“Hey.”

I turned to my left, spotting Snotlout leaning against the post beside our door. Whatever he wanted, it could wait.

“Hey?”

The last thing I expected was for Snotlout to throw his fist forward suddenly, punching me in the face and sending me sprawling out onto the ground. The pain didn’t even register, instead replaced by the growing sense of annoyance I’d been dealing with since this whole Zippleback ordeal started.

“What is wrong with you?” I shouted, most likely waking Reign.

“Hiccup Haddock, I’m calling you out. Defend yourself.” he demanded as he pounded his fists together.

“Defend my—“ His lunacy continued as he picked up an axe, slamming it into the ground just by my feet. “What? What are you doing?”

“I said, fight me,” he whispered, something else lingering in his tone. “What’s that Hiccup? You want to fight to the death?”

“What? Who said that?” I scoffed. “Nobody said that!”

Snotlout recklessly began to swing the axe over my head, coming dangerously close to slicing the top of it off. He needed to be dealt with now, and no one else was around to help—not that I really needed it with Snotlout.

“I am not going to fight you, Snotlout!”

“You see that? The future chief is a coward. You heard me. Come hit me. You know you want to.”

That settled it. He asked for this, and whatever came next he deserved.

“Fine. But remember. You wanted this.”

I heard the door to our hut fly open right as I reeled back and punched Snotlout on his mouth, causing him to cry out in pain and stumble back. Reign gasped and rushed to my side, staring at the Viking as he murmured something and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

“I’m assuming you saw that?” When I turned to look at Reign, she wore a smirk on her face.

“Yeah.” I heard her laugh a little. “It was kinda hot.”

Neither of us had time to dwell on that as Barf and Belch dropped fish for us and the twins showed up, which could only mean… this was some half-assed attempt at a plan. But before I could chew them out, Snotlout started to come to, and Reign and I crouched beside him, making sure he wasn’t in need of immediate medical attention.

“Mom, Dad, Hiccup punched me,” he whined, eyes still closed. “I’m really thirsty.” Furious, I glared up at the twins.

“Clubhouse, now. And get him some ice.”

I felt Reign’s worried eyes on me as I paced back and forth in the clubhouse, trying to collect my thoughts and say something that wasn’t spewing my anger.

“Well, a little warning would have been nice,” I snapped. Unable to speak, Snotlout merely pointed at the twins, confirming what I’d already suspected.

“Well, to be honest, Hiccup, we figured out what was ruining our plans,” Tuff drabbled, acting like everything that just happened was nothing. “It was you.”

“Me?”

“You, my friend, are a terrible actor.” I looked back at Reign, who was leaning against the wall, for help, but she shrugged her shoulders.

“They’re not wrong. But that’s not why the plans failed. They failed because your dragon is quite possibly the only being on this island that’s a bigger muttonhead than you two.” She pointed her finger accusingly at the pair, leaning away from her relaxed posture ever so slightly.

“So you made Snotlout attack me?” I asked, getting us back on track.

“’Surprise’ is the word we prefer,” Ruffnut corrected.

“We needed a real reaction from you,” Tuff explained, as though that somehow would make me okay with all of this.

“And boy, did we get one. Eh, Snotlout?”

He only whined, then reached into his mouth, removing a single, white pearl.

“That’s my tooth!” he gasped, staring at the thing with wide, horrified eyes.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t expecting Thor’s mighty hammer to meet Snotlout’s paper jaw.” That didn’t erase any of the other complications that potentially could have arisen from all of this.

“So, okay, you do realize if Barf and Belch had already tried to save me, Snotlout would’ve been roasted alive.” Clearly, they never filled Snotlout in on that, based on the way he gasped.

“We took that into account in our risk assessment.” My hand slapped against my forehead, stuck in a dumbfounded disbelief.

“Oh, this situation has gotten way out of hand,” I groaned.

“Please, Hiccup, you’ve gotta help us,” Tuffnut begged. “We’re lost without our dragon. We have nothing to live for. Do you understand?”

“We will get your dragon back,” I assured him. “But, you two have to stop. Stop your plans, stop your schemes. Okay? I’m gonna figure this out. I just need time alone.”

As I turned to leave, I felt a hand on my wrist, making my heart pound harder in my chest. It was so hard for me to push her away, but I just needed a while to clear my head and take a walk.

“I’ll be fine, love. I really do just need time alone.” Reign reached up, threading her fingers through my hair. “I promise I’ll be back before it gets dark.” Just to make sure she’d hopefully calm down a little, I gently kissed her, then left the twins to her mercy.

Hopefully, she wouldn’t murder them in the time I was gone.

I was well aware a certain Zippleback had been trailing me the entire time, but to the best of my ability, I shut them out and tried to just focus on a way to get this exact scenario to stop.

The rustling of leaves had been fairly regular and heavy, so when a different pattern cut through, I glanced back, confused.

“Huh?”

Right as I faced forward again, someone grabbed onto me and yanked me back into the bushes, binding my hands behind my back and throwing a bag over my head,

“Really, guys?” I sighed. The one time I thought I’d get some peace, and the twins couldn’t obey for just five minutes. “What did I just say?” Still, they didn’t let up. “I said—come on, I’m serious. Would you let me go? No, seriously, just put me down!”

I began to panic slightly as the twins picked me up and carried me somewhere, slamming my body down on what sounded and felt like wood.

“Okay, this is the single worst plan you have ever come up with.”

I wasn’t prepared for what greeted me when the bag was removed from my head. Though it wasn’t exactly easy to see in the darkness, I could make our several Dragon Hunters, surrounding none other than Dagur and Ryker themselves, the former wearing a proud smirk.

“Oh, I don’t know brother,” Dagur laughed. “You’re our prisoner now. Seems like a brilliant plan to me.” His cackle buried itself deep into my brain, the purposeful taunting creating the rotten cherry on top of this day. “So, looks like your little island stronghold isn’t so strong after all. It’s completely unguarded from the north. You know, doesn’t take much to put in a watch tower.” Dagur cackled to himself again. “No watchtower. What do you do without a watchtower?”

“Dagur,” Ryker snapped, causing the man to tense before he slipped back into his usual demeanor.

“We are gonna extract every little piece of dragon knowledge from that tiny coconut-shaped noggin. We’re gonna use you to take us to every island that Dragon Eye has led you to.”

“And if I don’t?” I growled. Dagur had to know I’d go down swinging with this.

“I hope you don’t,” Ryker admitted, pointing his sword straight at my neck.

It almost appeared like Ryker wasn’t going to wait, when a blast of fire struck the side of the boat, sending everyone before me tumbling off their feet. Before they were given the chance to figure out what was going on, green plumes of gas spilled onto the deck, followed by sparks that caused a large explosion, rocking the boat and giving me enough time to get up and start to run. Barf and Belch touched down in front of me, revealing themselves as the attackers.

“First time in a while that I’ve been happy to see you guys,” I laughed. Belch bit down on my ropes, managing to undo them just as a group of Dragon Hunters came charging at me, weapons raised above their heads. With the help of the Zippleback, most of them were sent either back onto the deck or into the water.

Unfortunately, the ones still on board got up just seconds later, beginning to overwhelm us. Barf and Belch sent out their distress signal, hopefully getting the others to come and help us out. Reign, in particular, would definitely want to come and see this.

In the meantime, we batted away and kicked off anyone that came near us, keeping the hunters at bay for the time being. I’d been so caught up with defending the dragon, I got caught off-guard when Ryker stepped forward, throwing me to the ground and raising his sword over his head.

Barf and Belch just knocked him forward, like he weighed no more than a balloon, getting his foot tangled in a rope.

“Whew! Nice job, guys,” I exclaimed. “Get us out of here.”

In a last, futile attempt to keep us there, Dagur stepped forward with a launcher, already prepped with a large spear. Even more incompetent than Ryker, Dagur just stood there as Barf and Belch released their gas and sparked it, completely destroying the weapon.

“Now I owe you one.”

Finally, we were able to get out of there, heading straight back for Dragon’s Edge. We hadn’t made it very far, when a familiar group of dragons swooped over my head… except for the one I knew best, which crashed right into me, knocking me off Barf and Belch’s back. The slight disorientation didn’t throw me off for long, and I was able to get onto my dragon’s back and properly expand his tail, while the twins rescued Barf and Belch from a net beneath the waves.

At least everything was right with the dragons.

“Let’s get these hunters away from Dragon’s Edge!” I shouted to the others.

Reign and Shriek immediately booked it for the deck, meaning we’d have to take care as we blasted away pieces of the ship. I kept my eyes trained intensely on the redheaded female of that family, watching as she wildly swung her sword and kicked her brother to the ground. When she finally got the best of him, I expected her to just kick him and walk away, but instead, she pinned him to the ground with her arm and held her sword against his chest, threatening to spear it right through his heart.

I didn’t want to win the war like this.

Dodging through the flames enveloping the wood of the boat, Toothless touched down on the deck. Reign jumped and nearly stabbed me when I picked her up and dragged her over to Toothless, but she finally calmed down when I got her back to her dragon, remaining silent the whole flight back to the Edge.

Something was going on with her, turning her into someone she wasn’t.

“So, it looks like the old life debt has been repaid,” Reign smiled. The two of us had decided to go on a walk the next morning, attempting to shake off the little argument we had this morning.

After Reign’s sudden moment of intensity on the ship last night, she snuck out, once again returning only after the sun came up. She tried to deny it the best shee could, and in the end, we just dropped it and decided to leave for a while.

“Barf and Belch saved me from the Dragon Hunters, and Ruff and Tuff saved their dragon from drowning. Thank Thor, everything’s back to normal.”

“Yeah!”

“Hit us again!”

Reign and I turned to see the twins hanging from ropes, getting smacked around by Barf and Belch’s heads.

“Well…”

“Normal for us,” Reign laughed.

The force of Snotlout knocking me off my feet struck me, pinning the both of us to the ground. 

“Will someone please tell this lunatic it’s over?”

Guess the conversation with Reign would have to wait. But how much longer could we go dancing around the issue?


	21. Snow Way Out (Reign)

_Bite your tongue, Reign. Keep it up. You can do this. Remember, it’s not for you._

I’d never felt such an intense gnawing against my heart. I’d been caging this truth inside me for weeks, allowing it to consume me. I couldn’t just keep it in, but I’d been given specific instruction not to tell Hiccup, so instead, it fell to Astrid.

Thankfully, she was in her hut when I landed.

“Hey, you’re back.” One look at the way my face contorted, and she knew something was wrong. “What’s going on?” I made sure to glance behind me, checking for any of the others, the I shut the door.

I couldn’t even make it to her table, collapsing onto the floor in a heap of emotions.

“I can’t keep this up, Astrid!” I cried. She set aside her axe and sat next to me, placing a supportive hand on my back. “Every time I’m out until morning, and I have to be with him, it’s like someone’s tightening a bola in my chest.” I sniffled loudly, wiping some of the tears from my eyes. “We’ve never kept anything from each other before; at least, nothing like this.”

Astrid let me cry out everything welled up inside of me, overwhelming her hut with sobs and sniffles until there was nothing left.

“I know there’s nothing I can say that’ll make this better,” she sighed once I’d finally calmed at least a little bit. “And I know everything that’s been said before has just made you feel guilty. And, maybe seeing his face will just make it all worse, but I think we should go and find Hiccup. I know he’s missed you.”

After allowing me enough time to pull myself together and look normal, Astrid and I got on our dragons and flew around the Edge. We ended up finding everyone at the stables, recapping after a training exercise, according to Astrid.

“It’s a good thing for you guys I’m on your side,” Snotlout boasted.

Upon hearing that, Astrid prompted Stormfly to jostle her head, ‘unintentionally’ knocking him down.

“You are? Honestly, sometimes it’s hard to tell,” I teased.

“Reign!” Something jarred in my stomach as Hiccup smiled brightly at me. “You’re back from Berk already?”

“Never made it there.” Technically, that was the truth… even though Berk had never been the intended destination. “I ran into Trader Johann along the way and he had some interesting news. Hiccup, we need to talk.”

“Of-Of course.”

He jumped onto the back of Toothless, determined to get down to business, but the moment we got back to our hut and shut the door, he practically jumped on me, kissing nearly anywhere he could.

“What happened to needing to talk?” I laughed, doing nothing to stop him.

“You were gone for three days,” he whined. “I missed you.”

I sighed, closing my eyes and relaxing for a moment, until the guilt came crawling back up.

Moving away, the two of us focused again, allowing me to relay the information I’d received. I started to tell just him, but both of us quickly agreed this was information everyone needed to know, so we rounded up the rest of the group, and I stood before them in the clubhouse.

“Johann flagged me down on the way to Berk to tell me that he’d seen Ryker, Heather, and the Dragon Hunters in the Northern Markets buying all the cold weather gear they could get.” Thankfully, no one questioned the source I’d chosen; I knew the rest of them trusted Johann.

“Why would you buy winter gear in the summer?” Snotlout questioned, actually focusing on the important detail this time.

“Hello. That’s when you get the best prices.” I rolled my eyes at Ruffnut. Someone always had to serve as the distraction in meetings.

“Ruff is an excellent shopper.” And, of course, her brother had to join in. “She actually got both our outfits, two for the price of one.”

“No one’s surprised by that.” Thankfully, Hiccup was there to step in and re-focus the conversation.

“Where would the Dragon Hunters be going that they would need heavy weather gear this time of year? Did Johann hear anything else?”

Here came the harder part… If I could convince them Johann told me this, then I might be home free for the moment.

Even thinking that made me feel terrible.

“They needed the gear right away. And they were after something rare. A bone or a claw…” I watched recognition flash on Hiccup’s face.

“Or maybe a tooth?” The rest of the group started to play catch-up.

“The Snowwraith!” Fishlegs exclaimed. “Of course! The Dragon Hunters are after the Snowwraith to get its teeth.”

“Good luck with that,” Tuff scoffed. “We barely got out of there alive.”

“The Dragon Eye used to belong to the Hunters,” Hiccup reminded the rest of the group. “They must know they need a Snowwraith tooth to make it work.” I followed the movement of his hands, watching the Dragon Eye catch the light. When had he grabbed that?

“Who cares? All it means is that they aren’t coming our way.” Once again, Snotlout couldn’t see the bigger picture—not that anyone expected him to.

“Which means, if they do get their own key, they’ll be coming for us next,” I snapped, my patience wearing thin. There was no way I would let my brother have that sort of victory.

Astrid, on the other hand, appeared a bit more cautious.

“Tell me you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.” I shrugged at her, offering a silent apology.

“Oh, she’s thinking.”

“That’s definitely her thinking face.”

“We can’t let that happen,” I growled. “Get a good night’s sleep, gang. We leave for Glacier Island at first light.”

No one bothered to question my intentions, turning back for their huts, with the exception of Hiccup and Astrid. My eyes bounced between them, genuinely distressed about which conversation I wanted to have—something Hiccup noticed. His relatively neutral expression twisted into a subtle frown, making me cave to him.

“Come on,” I smiled, taking his hand. “We both definitely need the rest. Besides, we need to dig those pelts back out of the chest so they’re ready for tomorrow.”

For the first time in quite a few nights, I actually slept well, feeling safe pulled close against Hiccup’s chest. Tomorrow was a whole different problem, however, and part of me wondered if it would just be better to tell him before we went. I already knew he’d be angry, but I sort of hoped I could lessen it if I nipped it in the bud.

“Hey, Hiccup?”

He stirred slightly in his sleep, his eyes lazily opening. Something about the way he looked at me, smiling and moving some of my unruly hair from my face… I just couldn’t do it.

“I missed this.” Sighing, he pulled my head to rest against his chest.

“Me, too, love.”

There came the gnawing again.

I wasn’t exactly pleased about heading into the frozen unknown the next day, but we couldn’t let the Dragon Hunters get their hands on the key. Even if they didn’t have the Dragon Eye now, it meant they’d be able to open it the moment we let our guard down—or, worse, if they could build their own, they could track down every dragon species without us knowing.

“Hey, can I ask a stupid question?” Tuff finally piped up, breaking the prolonged silence.

“You sure can,” his sister encouraged. “Better than anyone I know.”

“Thank you, sister.”

“You’re welcome.” Thankfully, their banter ended before they could go too far in.

“Hiccup, are we really trying to protect a dragon, that the last time we saw it tried to kill us, from Dragon Hunters, who every time we see them try to kill us?”

Hiccup opened his mouth to answer, but Ruffnut cut him off before he got the chance.

“And Heather and her dragon,” Ruffnut added. “Don’t forget them. They like to try and kill us, too.” I knew I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but my instincts took over.

“Heather won’t be a problem,” I contradicted quickly. The moment I finished that sentence, I realized what I’d just done; thankfully, some of my friends weren’t the brightest.

“Why wouldn’t Heather be a problem?” Sadly, Fishlegs was the one that registered my words first.

“Just that we…” My brain finally returned to my body. “…we outnumber her, right?”

A terrible excuse; quite possibly one of my worst yet

“Look, Heather or no Heather, all we have to do is find the Snowwraith first and relocate him to an island where the Hunters won’t find him.” I liked to think Hiccup was defending me, but he was just as clueless as most of the others.

“Oh, that’s all?” Ruffnut scoffed.

“Uh, that sounds like the sort of ‘extremely dangerous’ plan I would come up with. And I do not mean that as a compliment.” It scared me that the twins were the voice of reason in all of this.

“I didn’t think so,” Hiccup fired back. “Come on. Let’s head over to where we found the Snowwraith last time.”

“Oh, you mean where it found us?” Snotlout seethed.

“That’s one way of putting it.”

The cold had already invaded my bones by the time we landed on the island, sending waves of intense shivers through me every now and then. The cold weather gear definitely provided an improvement—given that I likely would have already frozen to death if I didn’t have it on—but the distracting pain and discomfort still persisted. As per our usual routine, Hiccup wrapped himself around me, attempting to provide as much heat as possible.

Toothless fired his echolocation blasts into the raging storm for quite a while, but none of them were returned, and his ear plates never perked up.

“Anything out there, bud?” Toothless growled and shook his head.

“This is summer on glacier island?” Ruffnut trembled, holding her arms close against her body. “No wonder they don’t get any tourists.”

“What would their slogan be? ‘If the Snowwraith doesn’t kill you, the weather will.’” I couldn’t understand how Tuffnut had the energy to joke, when all of them looked like they were suffering just as much as I was.

“Hey, that’s a good slogan.” His sister was the only one agreeing with that.

“That’s a terrible slogan,” Hiccup groaned. “But, the good news is, if we run into any Dragon Hunters they won’t have much luck with those dragon root arrows in this weather.” I shuddered again, prompting Hiccup to hold me tighter.

“And the bad news is—“ We directed our attention to Snotlout, who was sandwiched between the twins, desperately grappling for some other sort of heat.

“What a-are you d-doing?” I trembled, my voice barely escaping over the whipping winds.

“It’s called ‘body heat management.’” Ruffnut’s teeth chattered together as she spoke. “You, of all people, should know about that.”

“Also known as the Thorston Sandwich served cold.”

“That’s… horrifying. Okay, why don’t you guys set up camp? Reign and I will scout the land.”

I wanted to protest, but I knew there was nothing I could do to dissuade Hiccup from coming with me. He’d fight me if I wanted to ride on Shriek, and I understood the danger that posed to me, but I had a job to do, and if that meant I froze a little bit more than normal, then that’s what would have to happen.

“H-Hey. Do you m-m-mind if I ride on Shriek?” Hiccup’s eyes widened immediately, just like I’d expected.

“What? Reign, no,” he protested. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You should stay with me on Toothless. I don’t want you freezing to death.”

“I-I’ll b-be fine, Hiccup. It’s j-just a quick look ar-around, right?” Unfortunately, that made him more suspicious

“What’s going on with you?” His words came out harsh, biting me like the air.

“N-N-Nothing,” I lied, making my best attempt at a shrug. “Come on. Let’s j-just go look a-around.”

Though he kept a cautious eye on me, Hiccup climbed onto Toothless, and once I managed to get secure on Shriek, we took off, searching for anything unusual. I could barely see in the storm, but hopefully, the signal would be bright enough even through the waves of snowflakes. Now, I just needed a way to break off from Hiccup and Toothless without them seeing me.

“You see anything down there?” There was still lingering bitterness in Hiccup’s words.

“I ca-can barely see you half th-the time.” Now was my chance. “May-maybe we should spli-split up. Cover mo-more ground.”

“No,” he barked. “Stick together. It’s safer. Okay?”

There was definite irony in the way the snow picked up at that moment, allowing me to slip out gracefully and make it look like an accident when Hiccup inevitably grilled me when I found him again. Once I knew I had ample distance between the two of us, I yanked on Shriek’s saddle, turning her right back around to head toward a different part of the island.

The two of us flew for a while, finding nothing glowing through the flakes. It took a while for the storm to let up, but when it did, I spotted a distinct dragon curled up around a dying flame.

Finally.

Shriek and I flew around the other side of the mountain, sneaking through a cave and up behind the rider and their dragon, blissfully unaware of the warrior and powerful Thunderdrum crawling up behind her. At least, that’s what I’d convinced myself of as I stopped right behind her.

“Well, well, well. Heather,” I growled, gripping my sword tight in one hand, my shield in the other. I felt like I was about to fall over, but the adrenaline kept me upright and ready to swing. “Fancy meeting you here. Surprised to see us?”

“Surprised?” My sister laughed as she pushed herself up, removing her axe from her back. Her green eyes looked even more piercing through the mask and hood covering the rest of her face. “Not really. I’ve been listening to you stomp through the snow for the past five minutes.”

The two of us stared each other down, dragons growling and thrashing at each other…

…until we knew it was safe, and Heather lowered the mask covering her mouth, revealing a bright smile.

“What took you so long?” she sighed. I pulled her into a tight hug, relieved she still hadn’t been found out.

“Hiccup isn’t the easiest person to sneak a-away from,” I shrugged, following her to sit beside her fire.

“Yeah. Ryker thinks I’m out scouting.” We sat as close as possible to each other, enjoying the short moments we had to just be sisters. “How did you get him to come here anyway?”

“I ju-just told him what you t-told me.” I could feel the cold running through my veins melting away. “But let him think it was coming fr-from Trader Johann. Any problems on your end?”

“Well, Ryker doesn’t trust anyone and Dagur is paranoid, but so far I think I’m okay.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Really? Our brother’s paranoid? Why?” Heather shrugged.

“I think he’s just worried about me.” Something in her eyes changed when she thought about that. “He worries about you, too. He never says it directly, but… when you’re not there, he never says anything bad about you. And, I think one time, I heard him ask Ryker not to hurt you.”

My body deflated a little, Heather’s words bouncing around in my mind. Our family was certainly strange, but even when we were at war, we remained fiercely loyal to each other.

“Is he coming here?” I couldn’t fight down the hope in my voice.

“Oh, gods, no,” Heather laughed. “I sent him on a fool’s errand, looking for a second Dragon Eye.”

“That should keep him busy.” As much as I cared about my brother, I knew he was simple-minded. “So, fill me in.” From her bag, my sister removed a strangely marked map.

“We’ve been here for two days, searching pretty methodically,” she informed me. “According to Ryker, the Snowwraith digs an ice cave to hibernate during the summer.”

“We didn’t know that.” Sometimes, we forgot we didn’t know everything about dragons, even if it felt like it. “That explains the rush to get out here, probably to get a tooth from a hibernating Snowwraith.”

“Exactly,” Heather confirmed.

“Too bad we don’t know where the cave is.”

“But I think I might.” I smiled at Heather again; I was so lucky to have such an observant sister. “Windshear and I spotted a cave on a plateau about halfway up that mountain. You find a way to get Hiccup and check it out. Meanwhile, I’ll tell Ryker I didn’t find anything and try to keep him as far away as possible.”

Upon hearing his name, my stomach twisted itself up and the teeth started chewing at my heart. Guilt threatened to completely consume me and make me disappear right where I stood. He was probably worried about me, ‘lost’ out here in the cold. I could picture him pacing back and forth at camp, or pushing Toothless through the frozen tundra until they nearly collapsed. The tension between the two of us had severely thickened, but I’d still give anything for him, and I knew it was the same for him.

“What?” Heather’s voice caused me to jump.

“We should tell Hiccup what we’re doing,” I picked at my nails as my feet fell to the ground, “this doesn’t feel right.” 

“No. We agreed,” Heather whined. I didn’t want to say no to my sister, but lying to the person I loved?

“I’ve never lied to him before. We promised that we wouldn’t once we started dating. He’s been the person I tell everything to, and he definitely knows something’s up.” Heather wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a hug.

“I know. But this is the best way to take the Dragon Hunters down, from the inside.”

“Hiccup could help us,” I suggested, finding any way I could to alleviate the guilt. “He’s really good at this stuff. And, you’re going to be his family eventually, so he’d _definitely_ want to help.”

“He also cares too much,” my sister argued. “If I told Hiccup that I was spying on the Hunters, we both know he’d try to pull me out of there.”

“I get that, but—“

“I’m this close to Viggo. I can’t quit now.” The intensity that pushed her right into my face sent a fearful chill through me… or maybe it was just the cold catching back up.

“I really hope you’re right,” I sighed, “because if any of the Riders got hurt, or you got hurt because I held something back—“

“Nothing will go wrong. Trust me.”

My sister’s reassurance did nothing to help me. I didn’t want to play the ‘I’m older’ card, even in my mind, but Heather’s youth didn’t mix well with that Berserker gung-ho attitude. I’d learned to think through possibilities and form a safe plan over the years thanks to Hiccup, but I recognized my younger self in Heather; and, lately, I felt like spending time sharing secrets with her was awakening something reckless and irresponsible in me.

Once she finished giving me all that information, I had to leave, otherwise Hiccup might actually find us. Unconcerned with keeping up continuity, I rushed back for where the camp had been set up, the fire giving me my signal. The moment Shriek and I touched down, Hiccup’s eyes lit up, and he rushed to me, practically squeezing the life out of me. His lips were cold, but honestly, I didn’t mind.

“What happened to you?” His words came in gasps, and I could hear his heart threatening to burst free from his chest. “I turned around and you were gone. I thought…”

“We just got separated.” I reached up and ran a gloved hand through his hair. “I called out for you for a while, but I couldn’t find you, so I camped out until everything died down.” I felt like I was about to puke when Hiccup raised an eyebrow at me.

“Aren’t you cold?” Suddenly, it felt like an interrogation. One of his hands rested on my cheek, pulling away just seconds later. “You’re so warm. How is that possible?” I thought up a lie fast.

“I started a fire, like you taught me when we were younger. I sat by it right until we left.” Before Hiccup got the chance to ask more questions, I moved on. “I need you guys to come with me. I think I found something for the Snowwraith when we were coming back.” That brought back Hiccup’s smile.

“You’re riding with me and Toothless this time.” I wasn’t about to disagree, not after that little argument.

“Absolutely.”

Trying my best to act like I was uninformed, I guided the group to the location Heather had pointed out, coming up with some sort of explanation about how I noticed something suspicious in the mountain, but didn’t want to check it out without numbers.

“So, when I spotted the cave from the air, it got me thinking. Last time we were here, the Snowwraith was on us right away. Remember?” I waited for Hiccup to nod. “So why not this time? Maybe because it’s hiding out or hibernating or something in that cave.”

“Yeah, that’s not a bad theory,” Fishlegs piped up, hopefully increasing the believability of my story.

Unfortunately, Hiccup was still sharp as ever.

“I agree.” His voice fell into a low drawl, almost threatening in nature. “I’m just wondering how it was you came all the way out here when we were scouting in the opposite direction.” I didn’t have enough time to think of something clever.

“I must’ve gotten lost,” was all I could come up with.

“Lost?”

I felt like the wind had been knocked out of my lungs. I desperately wanted to tell him—the words were already clawing at my throat, trying to escape and fix everything—but every time that desire came up, I thought about protecting my younger sister.

Still, he was definitely onto me. There was genuine anger in his voice now.

“Fine. I got carried away, okay? You know how I am.” I hadn’t intended to snap at him, especially when I couldn’t really see his face easily, but it’s what came out.

“Yes, I do. But you can’t just go off on your own like that, Reign. I rely on you.” I became very aware everyone else could hear this conversation, but Hiccup seemed to give it no mind.

Right before Hiccup started to move Toothless again, I pressed a kiss against his shoulder, hoping that would at least calm him for a while.

“Okay,” I whispered.

Our dragons walked all the way up to where the entrance of the cave was, when a strange sound halted everyone in their tracks, prompting Astrid, Fishlegs, and I to remove our weapons from their holsters and prepare for a potential attack.

“So much for your hibernation theory.” Snotlout rolled his eyes, resting against Hookfang’s horns like he was bored.

“Shh,” Hiccup hissed. “Toothless, make the first shot count.”

The Night Fury started to power up his plasma blast, readying it to completely wipe away whatever threatened us. It would’ve been an impressive display, had a trio of boars not run up over the hill a moment later, revealing themselves as the source of the noise. They stared up at us a moment, then turned and ran back where they came from, squealing the entire time.

I glanced around, pretending to search for anything, then pointed out the entrance to the cave, right where Heather thought it would be.

“There it is!” I already started to slide myself off Toothless, realizing there was a good possibility Heather was in there. I didn’t want to risk someone from our side attacking her because they didn’t know. “I’ll go check it out.” Hiccup turned and grabbed onto my waist, pulling me back up.

“We’ll all go check it out,” he asserted.

The inside of the cave trapped the cold, and just seconds after entering, I felt my body threatening to shut down. My stubbornness actually might’ve gotten me killed in this instance, so I was actually thankful Hiccup had come with me. Even with all the tension that turned both of us into bickering messes at the moment, he held me close when we dismounted our dragons, not wanting me to freeze to death. We kept our eyes peeled, which made us aware of some strange marks on the wall of the cave. Hiccup, Fishlegs, and I approached them, and they ran their hands over them.

“Look at these claw marks,” Hiccup marveled. “I’d say we found the right cave.”

“It’s nice,” Tuffnut shrugged. “It’s no boar pit, but it’s nice.” As expected, that held no relevance to the topic whatsoever.

“All right. Let’s take it slowly and quietly. Snotlout, get the Nightmare gel out.”

To provide extra warmth and light in the quickly darkening tunnel network, Hiccup lit a torch and passed it off to me, making sure I was closest to the fire. We hadn’t gotten very far down, when Toothless halted in his tracks, his ear plates perking up as he turned his head back. It took me a second, but I heard the familiar clinking of Windshear’s tail against the ground.

Oh, gods. This wasn’t good.

“What is it, bud?” Hiccup muttered, patting his dragon’s head.

Now, it was loud enough for everyone else to hear.

“Is that…?” Astrid cast a subtle wink at me, trying to play along.

“Behind us!”

The moment the three Dragon Hunters fired their arrows, Toothless shot them down, keeping our dragons safe from being rendered useless.

“Everybody down!” Astrid ordered. Thinking fast, she turned Stormfly around, and the Nadder shot out spines from her tail, sending the archers running and throwing themselves onto the ground. Though they were down for now, I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Ryker forced them back inside. We needed to at least smoke them out for the time being.

“Ruff, Tuff, g-g-get ready,” I hissed, attempting to keep my voice low. I threw the torch into the snow, snuffing out the flames to give us an extra advantage.

The footsteps came pounding closer, just like I’d expected, and right when the shadows appeared against the walls, I motioned forward. Barf and Belch unleashed their gas and sparked it, creating a large explosion—but not before one of the Hunters fired an arrow, which buried itself in Tuffnut’s helmet. At least no one got hurt.

“Oh, shoot my helmet, will ya!” he shouted. His sister laughed boisterously at him, threatening to give us away.

“Keep it down, will ya?” I snapped, glaring at them before turning back to focus on the mouth of the cave. “We wake up that Snowwraith, things get a lot trickier.”

“What do you think Ryker’s next move is?” Astrid asked, acting as though she was looking at Hiccup. I shook my head as lightly as possible, warning her not to give anything away. We were too deep into the lie at this point, and with how things were going, I feared Hiccup learning the truth would lead to a different sort of ending than the one the Hunters wanted.

“Surrender?” I shook my head at Ruff’s suggestion, burying my head in one of my hands.

“Or, I guess he could do that.”

Fishlegs’ words snapped my head right back up, revealing Ryker striding in our direction confidently. The sword in his hand scraped against the ice, creating an ear-piercing song of danger that grew louder and louder. My one free arm gripped Hiccup’s waist a little tighter, the other moving my sword to point toward him. No way would he get the chance to touch any of us or our dragons.

“Dragon Riders! Send out your leader to talk!” he ordered, his words most definitely reaching the deepest parts of the cave. For anyone else, that would’ve been a careless mistake, but with Ryker, it was no doubt a purposeful way to close us in.

“It’s gotta b-be a trap,” I whispered in Hiccup’s ear. “Send me out-t-t instead. I’ll see what th-their game is.”

“Absolutely not. I’m not letting you get killed.”

“Well, th-th-then we’re stuck, babe, be-because the same goes from m-me to you.” For a moment, our normal demeanor returned.

“Hiccup Haddock! Let’s talk this out like men.” Ryker definitely didn’t want to talk—not unless Hiccup played the game his way, and there was absolutely no chance of that.

“Oh, I don’t like the sound of that,” Fishlegs whimpered, reaching down to hug his dragon.

I felt Hiccup start to move, forcing desperation through my body. My hands moved to his, pushing them away from his shield and holding him down on Toothless.

“H-H-Hiccup, you c-can’t,” I begged, the tears welling up almost immediately freezing over. “He-He’s going t-to k-k-kill you. We bo-both know that.” He opened his mouth to protest, but I wasn’t letting up. “Eith-Either both of u-us go o-out there, or nei-neither of us d-do.”

Thankfully, he agreed to those terms, and the two of us readied our weapons. We had to separate, and I tried my best to push down my shivers and stand straight and tall as we both stopped far enough away from him that we could hopefully make a quick escape in the likely event that things went sour.

“Hmm. Dagur was right. You don’t look like much.” I watched a smirk grow up on Hiccup’s face.

“Reign was right. You look like a psycho.” Despite the insult, Ryker laughed.

“Now I get it.” There was something sick in his smile. “I couldn’t understand someone like her with someone like you, but you sound just like she did when I last interrogated her.”

“Fun time.” I kept my words short to hopefully hide the fact I felt like I was about to die. “We should do it again.”

“What do you want, Ryker?” Hiccup asked as he set his shield down.

“The Dragon Eye.” He glowered at us, keeping completely with our expectations.

“Not a chance,” I spat, pressing down the intense shudder that crawled through my skin a second later.

“It belongs to us, the Hunters. You stole it from our ship. And I will have it back.” While his argument held solid, we weren’t ones to cave that easy.

“Not today, you won’t.” Hiccup stood a little straighter as he spoke, his confidence in this situation rising.

“Oh, no?” Ryker made a show of gesturing to the close walls of the cave. “Look around. We’re in front of you, the Snowwraith is behind you. One time offer. Hand over the Dragon Eye and you’re free to go.”

Hiccup pretended to search his pockets and armor, playing into Ryker’s dramatics from a moment ago.

“Hm. Uh… Sorry. I must’ve left it in my other pants. Babe?” I pressed against my furs and dipped my hand under my hood, shrugging once I’d finished. Ryker’s eyelids narrowed at our little game we were playing.

“In that case, surrender and you won’t meet the same fate as your dragons.”

Enough with the games. Hiccup stepped forward slightly, making sure I was blocked by his shield, and I held my sword out, ready to run Ryker through if he got too close. It may have not looked like anything different to us, but I hoped that our aggressor would understand there wouldn’t come a day when he’d get to lay a finger on either of us.

“Okay, here’s my offer.” Hiccup spoke smoothly, his voice falling into a threatening growl. “Leave now and your men won’t have to find out what burning flesh smells like.” Ryker’s eyes bounced between the two of us, then his shoulders slumped.

“You really don’t have the Dragon Eye with you?”

“No.”

“And you aren’t coming out?” I didn’t like the way he was speaking. Something wasn’t right about the questions he chose.

“Not any time soon.” The fake defeat completely evaporated from Ryker’s face.

“Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance.”

Suddenly, my eyes caught a light on the roof of the cave, revealing the shadow of a Hunter with an arrow aimed straight at Hiccup. I gasped, immediately pulling him back.

“It’s a trap!”

The arrow loosed, but with the warning, Hiccup was able to deflect it with his shield, and the adrenaline of the fight allowed me to start swinging at any arrows that came my way until I could remove my own shield from my back. Any of the projectiles that went over our heads were immediately burnt to a crisp by the dragons, keeping us from harm as the last wave died down.

The moment the fight fell away, my legs gave out beneath me, my body officially too cold to function. Hiccup’s words as he caught me were just ringing in my ears, and everything that happened next came in flashes and blurs. The entrance to the cave was definitely sealed off, trapping us inside. Dragons lit fires and Riders pulled out their lanterns, but their conversation was completely lost on me. Gently, Hiccup and Snotlout got me up onto Hookfang, the latter keeping me supported on the flaming dragon until my body began to warm up again. It was a pretty good idea, actually, and eventually, I could focus on faces again and hold myself up.

When I looked around, it was far brighter than I remembered, and the patterns in the ice didn’t match what I’d seen before.

“Where are we?” I couldn’t really use my voice that well, but Snotlout heard me and turned around. 

“Reign, you’re up!” Immediately, everyone landed, and Hiccup rushed over, helping me down and holding me against him.

“How do you feel?” he asked warily, his voice croaking in that way it did when he panicked.

“Still a little cold, but I think I can manage,” I answered honestly. “Care to catch me up to speed?”

“We’re looking for the Snowwraith,” Hiccup muttered, keeping his voice low for some reason. “And I think this might actually be the place.”

Keeping myself tucked securely under him, everyone else got off their dragons, and I caught the end of the twins’ conversation with Fishlegs.

“And we outnumber him six to one.”

What horrible timing. I directed my eyes down into the cavern created, only to spot three blindingly white dragons, all asleep on drifts of snow. One Snowwraith was difficult enough to manage, but three? This couldn’t end well.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Astrid gulped.

“Well, at least they’re still asleep, and they won’t wake up—“ Right then, one of the Snowwraith’s heads picked up.

“You have _got_ to stop talking,” I hissed.

Strangely, the dragon kept its eyes closed, instead relying on its nose to figure out what wandered into its domain. Granted, that still didn’t bode well for us, but at least it couldn’t track our heat signatures.

Right as I thought that, the Snowwraith’s purple-blue eyes opened, and it roared at us, very clearly establishing that it knew we were here.

“What do we do?” I gasped, freaking out slightly more than usual because I really couldn’t do anything myself right now.

“Maybe we can put him back to sleep.”

Hiccup suddenly pushed me toward Astrid, relying on her to keep me warm while he followed through on whatever crazy thought came to his mind. Sprinting, he snatched the dragon root arrow from Tuffnut’s helmet, then slid onto his knees and pulled on his shield to reveal the crossbow inside. Unfortunately, it appeared he gave the Snowwraith too much advance warning, and it jumped out of the way.

“So, that didn’t work.”

That woke up the other two Snowwraiths, who roared triumphantly, then started to fire at us. The three got in a couple of shots, before they all took to the air and dove straight down, hiding themselves in the ice. I got up onto Stormfly with Astrid, and everyone met Hiccup and Toothless in the air.

“Burrowing! That’s new,” Hiccup observed.

“I know. And I don’t think like it.” Fishlegs’ gaze darted all over the place, expecting the Snowwraiths to pop up at any second.

Sure enough, they all emerged from tunnels that already existed, using their higher ground advantage to fire at us again.

“Oh, I _know_ I don’t like it!” Snotlout screamed. Once again, the Snowwraiths disappeared under the snow.

“Quick! Defensive formation.”

All the dragons landed, circling up and facing out dead in the center of the cavern. Even Shriek knew how to prepare herself, even without her rider on her. For a moment, a twinge of pride snuck through me.

“Everybody take an angle,” Hiccup called out, “fire as soon as you see them.” The ground beneath us rumbled, indicating they were definitely still there, but there wasn’t any way to distinguish their path.

“It feels like they’re going left.” Snotlout quickly backtracked. “No, right. Left. Which one’s which?”

“Forget that, just cover your zone.”

Finally, the Snowwraiths emerged, and although most of us couldn’t manage to hit them before they went back under, Hiccup and Toothless struck what appeared to be the leader, sending the other two over. They picked him up and disappeared below ground, causing all of us to tense and fall still again, waiting for vibrations from the ground. No one dared to move or make a sound for quite some time, before we realized nothing was there.

“Anybody feel anything?” Astrid asked, just to confirm.

“Just a profound sense of relief,” Tuff sighed.

“And perhaps a tinge of sadness?”

“Oh, exactly, sister.”

“I think they’re gone.” Fishlegs didn’t sound too sure, but I honestly believed it.

“Maybe they tunneled all the way out,” Hiccup theorized. “If they did—“

“—that could be our way out, too,” Astrid finished.

The loud growl of the Snowwraiths that came from down below didn’t sound the same as before; these ones held distress, meaning only one thing. 

“The Hunters.” My voice was gradually getting louder, and I finally felt like I could get on Shriek without an issue. “Let’s go.”

The tunnels the Snowwraiths created proved to be twisted and confusing, leading us all back to the same spot every time. Each route we created just furthered everyone’s frustration, and by the time we’d gone through the last network, most of us devolved into arguing and shouting about what combination we maybe hadn’t tried.

Hiccup, however, wasn’t one to give up as easily.

“Follow me!”

Thankfully, the tunnel he found led us straight out, bringing us into a scene of broken weapons, nets, and unoccupied cages. Maybe they didn’t get away with their plan after all. Hopefully, Heather had something to do with it… and she didn’t get caught.

“Ryker knew about the burrowing the whole time,” Hiccup realized as the snow storm kicked up around us.

“He used us to flush the Snowwraiths out, then captured them,” Astrid sighed. “Looks like they’re headed back along the south side of the glacier.

“They’re not gonna get there.”

Our dragons proved much faster transportation than the Hunters had. Just like Astrid thought, when we caught up with the Hunters, they had the Snowwraiths captured and were dragging them back to their ship. At first, it seemed like we could swoop in pretty easily and use the storm as cover, but right as we rounded the corner, the winds died down, and the snowflakes disappeared altogether.

“Great time for the snow to let up,” I deadpanned.

“Okay, we can’t get too close. We need to stay out of the range of their arrows.”

While the others looked for a way to attack, I kept my eyes out for Heather, hoping she was still safe and in good standing with the Hunters. I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to my sister.

“Maybe we don’t need to.” Snapping out of my thoughts, I followed Hiccup’s gaze. “Ruff, Tuff, see that sheet of ice of there?” The twins’ eyes lit up immediately, and they began to beg for a certain plan of attack that never failed. “We need an avalanche.”

“Our specialty!”

“Yes! Positive thinking works!”

The twins used Barf and Belch to cause an explosion over the ice sheet, sending it down on the Hunters. In their panic, they scattered from the traps and fell to the ground, leaving the Snowwraiths ripe for the saving.

“You guys get the Snowwraiths out of here,” Hiccup instructed. “I’ll deal with Ryker.”

Though I worried about what that might bring, I still followed the rest of my friends. We released the Snowwraiths back into their cave no problem, and I thought, for a second, that maybe everything would be fine.

But when I emerged from the confines, I saw Hiccup trailing Ryker and Heather on Windshear, readying a plasma blast that would no doubt seriously injure Heather.

I couldn’t do nothing. And I knew what the fallout would be, but enough was enough.

Shriek shot up into the air, getting in the way of Hiccup and Toothless’ fire.

“Reign! Look out!”

Here went nothing…

“Hiccup, no!” I shouted, catching up to him when the pair pushed past me. “Heather is with us!”

It worked, at the very least. Hiccup pulled Toothless back, making the shot miss the two of them. But I’d never seen such intense fury in his eyes when he turned back to look at me.

“What did you just say?”

I shrunk down, unable to get anything else out with the way my heart climbed up my throat. The flight back to Dragon’s Edge was tense, and the moment we landed back at the clubhouse, Hiccup stared me down, waiting for an explanation. I really would’ve preferred it if the rest of the group wasn’t there, but something told me I wouldn’t be able to get my way. 

“Heather pretended to join Dagur to get close to him and avenge her family.” My voice shook violently. “When she found out about his alliance with the Dragon Hunters, she decided to get closer to him to find out more.”

“But when Ryker captured us on his ship, you and Heather were fighting all the time,” Ruffnut argued.

“That’s what we wanted people to think. She explained everything to me the first time, and… I believed her. She’s still my sister, and I wasn’t about to abandon her. Thankfully, she was telling the truth.”

“Heather’s not evil?” Snotlout whined. “There goes that dream.”

“Oh, I knew she was good at heart,” Fishlegs gushed.

Hiccup’s eyes still burned holes into my back, imbibing guilt into me without saying a word. Turning around didn’t make it much easier.

“Hiccup, would you say something?” I begged, my words catching slightly in my throat. “Please?” I swallowed in fear as his hands balled into fists.

“We’re supposed to be a team, Reign.” That was all he gave me.

“I know. I should’ve told you. I wanted to. I really did.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, genuinely meaning it. “But, without Heather, the Dragon Hunters would have a key to the Dragon Eye right now and those Snowwraiths would not be safely hidden on another island.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you wouldn’t let me take her and Ryker down.” Annoyance started to mix in with my guilt and sorrow. Surely, he couldn’t be serious. “We could’ve captured the head of the Dragon Hunters.”

“First of all, because she’s my sister, and there was absolutely no way I was risking her getting hurt.” There was something else to his statement I needed to correct. “And second, Ryker isn’t the head of the Dragon Hunters. According to Heather, their real leader is someone named Viggo Grimborn. He lives in the shadows. Everyone’s afraid of him, even Ryker. Heather hasn’t met him yet, but she’s our best shot at drawing him out.”

Despite everything, Hiccup still wouldn’t relent on his anger.

“Hiccup, I love you—“

“Do you?”

I heard five sets of footsteps quickly shuffle out as I blinked at him, completely caught off-guard.

“Excuse you?” I gasped.

“Reign, at this point, I have no way of knowing what’s the truth and what’s not. How do I know you’re telling the truth about Heather? Or that you’re even on our side anymore? I saw the way you got on the boat with the Hunters a few weeks ago; I didn’t even recognize that woman. How do I know you’re not working with your family to get the Dragon Eye for the Hunters?”

The annoyance warped into full-blown anger as his imagination ran away with him.

“I feel like you have pretty sufficient evidence that I’m on your side,” I snapped. “And a completely different set of clues that I do, in fact, love you.”

“People can fake those sort of things.”

That was it. Right then and there, I broke, and that anger that drove me to lose my mind took over.

“How could you _possibly_ question that, Hiccup Haddock? You are the first and only person I’ve ever loved, and I thought maybe you’d be the person I’d be spending the rest of my life with. You are perfectly justified in being upset about this, but accusing me of something that horrible? Now I’m not so sure about what we had planned; I’m not even sure about being with you anymore.”

“I’m not, either.”

Silence fell over us, the realization of what we’d just said creating a stone wall between the two of us. The fire crackled for a while, providing the only noise until I finally started to step back.

“I’ll be staying with Astrid for the time being.”

Without giving him a chance to respond, I jumped onto Shriek and headed for the hut that wasn’t mine, holding everything back just long enough for her to let me in. But, the moment we were inside, I screamed, then sunk into a chair and cried, sitting with her and releasing everything left for the entire night.


	22. Edge of Disaster, Pt. 1 (Hiccup)

**_So I’m calling these next two chapters ‘half chapters’, because each of them is going to be half the length of a normal chapter. Initially, I was just going to make both parts one chapter, but there’s some important dialogue between Hiccup/Snotlout and Reign/Fishlegs that can’t happen in the same setting_ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_ **

The red and orange light of the sun’s arrival pushed my eyes open, nearly blinding me in the process. Unwilling to start the day just yet, I rolled over and stretched an arm out, expecting to feel a body there. Instead, my arm thumped down against wood, inducing a state of panic that shot me straight up.

It took a while for me to remember.

Some mornings went like this, where my brain hoped that everything with Reign had been a nightmare, and I’d wake up and she’d be there, fast asleep or smiling at me. Most of the time, I just wandered through my day, accepting it to the best of my ability. We never really crossed paths after that argument, something I knew was purposeful on her part. When I was on my own, all I could think about was how sorry I was; I wanted to tell her that—how I had been out of line, that I should’ve given her the benefit of the doubt, and how I couldn’t possibly imagine a future without her in it. And yet, somehow, whenever we _did_ end up seeing each other, our attempts at casual conversation completely devolved into arguing. It was like the things we kept pent up were suddenly more important than moving past a stupid fight, and the regret only came after.

Then again, I could only speak for myself.

Knocking against the frame of my front door finally pushed me to get up and make my way downstairs. There were a lot of things that could’ve been waiting for me, but Astrid holding the twins’ helmets was not one that I really expected.

“Astrid! What can I do for you?” I probably asked that a little louder than normal, but there was definitely a part of me that was afraid she was upset with me for what happened. Thankfully, she just got straight to her point.

“The twins,” she growled, thrusting their helmets out in front of my face. “They didn’t stand their watch, Hiccup. Those two dummies left two dummies in their place.” The situation definitely wasn’t one to laugh about, yet I found myself smiling.

“You know, those dummies could conceivably be just as effective as the twins,” I joked, leaning against a piece of the doorframe.

“Not funny,” Astrid snapped back. “We built that watchtower so that—“

“I know why we built it, Astrid.” She shook her head, throwing the helmets around slightly.

“I just don’t understand how this isn’t making you completely insane.”

“Because then there’d be two crazy people in this conversation and we probably wouldn’t resolve anything.” The moment the words left my mouth, I regretted it—especially as Astrid narrowed her gaze, leering at me.

“Are you saying I’m—“

“Astrid, let me talk to the twins,” I interrupted, trying to distract from what I’d just said. “I’ll get their side of the story, then we can figure out what we need to do.” Luckily for me, she took that.

“I guess that’s a start.”

With impeccable timing, the twins landed on the platform for my hut, climbing off their dragon with a determined sort of vigor.

“Well, if it isn’t our crack security team.” Both the twins flinched as Astrid tossed their helmets at into their hands.

“Oh! Please, please. There’s no need to shower us with our accolades.” It didn’t surprise me that the twins thought what they’d done was some sort of impressive plan.

“Tuff, you left two dummies to protect this entire base,” Astrid complained. “What were you thinking?”

Whatever came next in their conversation became lost to me. A Terrible Terror landed on my arm, carrying a scroll on its little leg. At first, I’d thought it would maybe be a message from Berk, or possibly even Heather, but instead, it came from a source I wouldn’t have expected. The message itself just made everything ten times worse.

“Are you following any of this?” Even though I didn’t lift my eyes from the note, I knew Astrid was speaking to me.

“Not super closely,” I admitted. “I’m actually reading this. It’s from Johann. He’s in trouble.” Astrid’s eyes went wide.

“Dragon Hunters?” I nodded.

“I have to get a team together now.” I started to rack my brain for anyone I could take. “You, Reign, and the twins stay here, keep working on the security measures. Hopefully, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and I will be back before long.”

Astrid’s protests followed me as I rounded up my team and brought them to the dragon stables to get ready to leave.

“You are not leaving me with these two muttonheads,” she snarled as I adjusted Toothless’ Gronckle Iron armor.

“She knows we’re standing right here, right?” Tuffnut mumbled to his sister.

“Look, Johann is surrounded by Dragon Hunters, and his ship is taking on water. We have to get out there and help him,” I reasoned.

“Then, let me saddle up Stormfly. I’ll be there in—“

“Astrid, you need to stay here and hold down the Edge. And make sure nothing happens to the Dragon Eye.” I passed the artifact to her, trusting she’d be able to protect it.

“I can’t believe this is happening. This actually may be the worst day in history,” she lamented.

“Astrid, Snotlout and I have the only working dragon armor, and Meatlug is immune to the Dragon Hunters’ arrows. It just makes sense for us to be the ones to go.”

Footsteps distracted me from whatever the trio said to each other next. When I turned on my heel, there stood Reign, her arms crossed against her chest with one brow raised. It took the group a minute, but it didn’t go unnoticed when they fell silent and stared at the two of us.

“Fishlegs said something about Dragon Hunters.” The ice in her tone cut through the air effortlessly. “I’m just wondering why it didn’t come from the source… and why, despite having a set of dragon armor myself, you said you and Snotlout were the only ones with it.”

That definitely was a mistake on my part, but something about the way she stared me down wouldn’t let me apologize.

“I thought it should be fairly obvious why I’d rather you stayed here.” I kept my voice monotonous. Reign, on the other hand, scoffed and stepped a little closer.

“Are you really that childish and immature that you can’t be professional and use all the help you can get?” There was a laugh in her words, which only made my anger with her grow.

“ _I’m_ childish?” I spat. “You’re the one that has to make an argument out of every little thing. Seriously, you haven’t been able to speak to me without shouting or insulting me in some way. You want to talk about professional—“

“Can you blame me? You made some pretty awful accusations—“

“—based on the fact that you lied to me—“

“That was one lie, Hiccup!” She and I were screaming at this point. “One lie out of the millions of truths I’ve told you. I swear to Thor, someone gives you an inch and your imagination runs a mile with it.”

“Okay, that’s _enough_!”

Both of us jumped as Astrid intervened, startled out of our trance. The entire group was looking at us with varying degrees of shock or annoyance.

“You two need to learn to work together again,” she snapped. “All you’ve done the past three weeks is argue, and it’s getting _really_ irritating. So, Reign, you’re going with Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Snotlout, and by the might of Odin, if you two can’t at least work as a team by the time you come back, I’ll lock you both in a room and make you get along.” Reign opened her mouth to protest, but Astrid cut her off. “You don’t have to be in love again, but at least be courteous to each other. Please. For all of our sakes.”

It took a minute for my brain to catch up with me, but when it did, I felt obligated to agree. Reign went into the stables to receive Shriek and her armor, and once they were saddled up and ready to go, we took off in the direction of the coordinates Johann had given me.

“Okay, from what the Terror Mail said, Johann sent it from this general area.” I looked down toward the water below me, but there wasn’t a ship anywhere in sight.

“And it said his ship was incapacitated,” Fishlegs pointed out.

“Correct. So he should be right below us somewhere.” I took another glance, but there was only ocean, and the occasional Scauldron passing but under the waves.

Thought it was starting to look more and more like this note wasn’t real, we couldn’t discount the possibility that the coordinates were off. This was Johann, after all, a man not known for his accuracy on all occasions. We should’ve at least seen some sign of Dragon Hunters, but we couldn’t give up yet. I refused to let this all be for not.

Reign and I started our dragons forward, figuring that’d be the best place to check first, while Snotlout and Fishlegs lingered in conversation.

“Good thing Meatlug is immune to those arrows, huh? Too bad you aren’t,” Snotlout cackled; he always got some sort of joy out of scaring Fishlegs or making him paranoid.

“Don’t listen to him, girl,” Fishlegs cooed as the pair of riders caught up. “I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.”

We finally caught up with Johann’s ship, but what surrounded him wasn’t exactly what I’d been expecting. Rather than an armada of Dragon Hunters and a sinking trader’s ship, Johann was swatting at a large swarm of actual dragons. They were diving at his ship and circling around his head, but from the looks of it, the threat wasn’t _nearly_ as bad as we’d been led to believe. Wonderful.

“Uh, I’m not so sure about that,” I called back to Fishlegs. Had Johann really messed up the note that badly, or had he lied about the urgency of the issue to get us out here to help him?

“Hey, I thought he said it was Dragon Hunters,” Reign called out. “Not actual dragons.” I knew she already didn’t trust Johann, as much as she tried to hide it, and I’m sure this didn’t help.

“He did, but you know Johann.” Strangely, talking like normal didn’t hurt as much this time.

“’Dragons, Dragon Hunters. What’s the difference?’” Snotlout joked, mocking something Johann might say in defense.

Despite the different circumstances, we still had to help him. It looked like they were trying to hurt Johann himself, rather than take food or items from the ship like I’d expect wild dragons to. For so long, we’d only known dragons to attack humans if they attacked first, but Johann didn’t exactly seem capable for that.

“I wonder what Johann did to get them so mad.” Fishlegs read my mind.

“Probably told them one of his dumb stories.” If there was anyone that hated Johann more than Reign, it was Snotlout. Unlike her, he made it much more obvious.

“Not funny, Snotlout,” I scolded.

“I wasn’t even trying to be funny!” he argued.

“All right, let’s just get Johann out of there, and be careful,” I warned the group. “We don’t want to hurt any of these dragons.”

“What about them hurting us?” Deep down, I knew Reign was just asking that to get a rise out of me. Under normal circumstances, she would have been more concerned about the dragons. “That never seems to cross your mind.” Rather than starting another unnecessary argument, I just shook my head and chose not to respond to her.

“Master Hiccup! They’re everywhere!” Johann cried once we were in earshot.

Toothless and I took a sharp turn to the left, catching the attention of a group of Nadders. At first, it seemed like they were actually going to follow us away from the ship, but once we were just out of the reach of the others, the dragons started to dive at us, trying to knock us down into the water.

“Okay, all right, never mind, never mind, never mind!” Toothless fell back and fired a plasma blast in their direction, scaring them off. “Wow, bud! We really must have caught these guys on a bad day.

Toothless and I had gone pretty far out, and when we returned to the ship, things somehow were worse. The dragons were gone, yes, but Meatlug and Shriek were without their riders, and Snotlout hovered on Hookfang, watching as the group flew toward an island on the horizon with Reign and Fishlegs dangling from their claws.

“I was gone for less than a minute! What happened?” My heart dropped as I watched Reign flail and pull herself up, trying to wrench herself from the grip of the Nadder. Even from a distance, I could tell she was frightened.

“I don’t know! I was dealing with some Gronckles, and the next thing I knew, I heard Reign shouting to be put down, and when I looked over, she and Fishlegs were being kidnapped by the wild dragons.” I rolled my eyes, taking a deep breath to keep myself from unloading on him.

“Well, let’s get Johann and go after them. Hopefully, those dragons won’t hurt them in the meantime.”

Snotlout watched me with a strange expression the entire flight to the island. None of us had seen where they touched down, so we went around the other side and decided to start there. It was a long hike filled with silence for a while, until the sun started to set, when I finally spoke what was on my mind.

“Snotlout, if those dragons did anything to Fishlegs or Reign, I’m holding you responsible,” I grumbled, pushing aside some low-hanging leaves.

“Oh, please,” he scoffed. “What do you care what happens to Reign?” I stopped dead in my tracks, staring at him, completely dumbfounded.

“How could you even say something like that?” I finally found my voice, though it broke quite a bit. “Of course I care what happens to her.”

“Then why have you been acting like you wouldn’t bat an eye if someone threw her off a cliff?” That was actually clever of him. I knew he was just trying to get me to talk things through. And, fortunately for him, it worked.

“Look, it’s just… hard for me to be around her right now,” I admitted. “I said some things I shouldn’t have said after you all left, and I feel terrible about it. But, every time we see each other, it’s like that guilt suddenly turns into anger, and the next thing I know, we’re yelling at each other.” I paused, a justification coming to me. “But she lied to me for a long time. She’d slip away in the middle of the night and not come back until morning, and then she’d just say she needed to go out for a while. I was worried about her.”

Snotlout remained quiet for a moment, mulling my words over.

“It _was_ just one lie, though.” Never, in my life, did I think I would hear Snotlout being this reasonable and calm. “I know the rest of us don’t know everything about your relationship, but you two always went to each other when something was happening. This is the one time she didn’t, and from what I understand, she was just trying to protect her sister.” I refused to speak, wallowing in the fact he was right. “You don’t have to listen to any of this, but it seems like you two are pretty miserable without each other. You’ve been together since we were teenagers, and now you’re going to throw that away over one little thing?” Snotlout shrugged. “It just doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me.”

I chose to move on from that, but kept the words stewing around in my mind.

“So, you looked away, and then the dragons left, and you didn’t think anything was weird?” I questioned, casting him an annoyed glance. “And they just picked Fishlegs and Reign up and flew off?”

“Yeah, definitely, that’s how it happened,” he answered quickly. That didn’t bode well.

For a moment, I’d forgotten the very person who had been attacked was with us.

“Johann, did the wild dragons take anything from the ship?” I asked, stopping and turning to face him. “Food, fresh water, anything?” Johann didn’t even need to think about it.

“No, Master Hiccup,” he shrugged. “They seemed only interested in terrorizing me until you lot came along and they started terrorizing you. Which was a bit of a relief, if I’m being honest. I’ve always been a great friend to the dragons. That they would turn on me like this, it’s inconceivable.”

I tried to find the logic in all of this as we resumed walking, but just came up short no matter what explanation I tried.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” I sighed. “Nightmares, Nadders, Gronckles, even in the wild, these dragons shouldn’t be this aggressive. I mean, from a Speed Stinger or a Changewing, these dragons I could understand, but maybe these guys have just never seen humans before.” The thought of that, and what they might do to their captives as a result, made my stomach churn.

“All I know is that we’ve been around these guys in the wild. None of them have ever acted like this.” Snotlout’s usual anger and annoyance had melted away, leaving the second good point he had today.

“Snotlout, I hate to admit it, but you’ve got a point.”

Without realizing, I’d picked up my pace, nearly running through the woods to try and find the dragons. Hopefully, Fishlegs and Reign weren’t hurt… or worse.

We approached a set of cliffs, and finally, I heard the squawks and roars of wild dragons communicating. Once we were close enough to see over the edge, I stuck my hands out, preventing Snotlout and Johann from moving too far. All the dragons we’d seen attacking Johann were down there, but there was also a significant amount of ones we hadn’t seen before, meaning we were _far_ more outnumbered than I had originally thought.

“Stop. Don’t move.” Once Snotlout and Johann spotted what I had, all three of us crouched down, making sure the wild dragons wouldn’t see us.

“Oh, finally,” Snotlout huffed. “Do you know how long we’ve been walking? My feet are swollen to the size of watermelons.”

“Shh.” I could feel Johann trembling in fear beside me as we watched the wild dragons fight and growl at each other, clearly not exactly on friendly terms within the ranks.

“Master Hiccup, I realize that you are the dragon expert among us—“

“I wouldn’t say the dragon expert,” Snotlout interjected, “I’d say—“ The both of us shushed him.

“As I was saying, it appears that this island is occupied by a rather unfriendly pack of wild dragons.” As Johann stated the obvious, I removed my spyglass from its place on my belt. I managed to get a pretty good look around before my blood ran cold.

“You’re right, Johann. But it’s worse than that.” I passed the spyglass off to Johann, allowing him to see what I just had.

“Oh, ho-ho, you’re full of good news, aren’t you,” Snotlout scoffed. “Gimme that.”

Snotlout reached over me to snatch the spyglass from Johann, looking down on Reign and Fishlegs surrounded by wild dragons. Fishlegs was sat in the middle of a circle of them, trembling as they leaned down and sniffed him. Reign, on the other hand, stood firm next to him, holding her ground against the dragons. At least they hadn’t gotten hurt, as far as I could tell.

“So, this means we get to rescue them, I suppose.” I’d had just about enough of Snotlout’s biting comments.

“It does,” I snapped. “And thank you for volunteering. But it’s not going to be easy.”

“With you as captain, I know it won’t.” It didn’t take me long to come up with at least the basic outline of a plan.

“Right, you see up there?” I pointed toward one of the tallest cliffs, where a dragon stood watching the rest of the group below. “Dragon sentries. They look like they’re ready for anything. It’s gonna be really hard to get anywhere near Reign and Fishlegs.”

“Well, I suppose the life of a Dragon Rider is shorter than most,” Johann shrugged, brushing all this off. “I’ll miss them dearly.” Snotlout got up, joining him in his unwillingness to help.

“Good point, Johann. Let’s get out of here.” Immediately, I shot up and grabbed onto their shoulders.

“No, no, we’re not going anywhere,” I said, maybe a bit too quickly. “I said it’s gonna be hard, but not impossible.”

Even if it took everything out of me, there was no way I was leaving Reign and Fishlegs behind.


	23. Edge of Disaster, Pt. 2 (Reign)

This was not how I saw my day going.

Then again, was there ever a time when I expected that I’d be captured and held hostage by wild dragons with Fishlegs? Not to mention that the people left to rescue me consisted of the cockiest man I’d ever met, a trader who flinched at every shadow, not to mention that I also didn’t trust, and someone who apparently didn’t trust me.

The mere thought of Hiccup somehow both made my heart ache and the rest of my body want to punch something. It was strange how I could love someone immeasurably, and yet any time I looked at their face, I just felt the urge to start yelling. Sure, it was definitely an unreasonable sort of anger, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said to me, what he’d accused me of, during that one explosive argument.

More than anything else, his accusations that I didn’t love him made me feel… worthless—like I wasn’t good enough. Not necessarily because he made any attack on me specifically, but because apparently, the way I expressed my emotions to him wasn’t enough for him to realize that I loved him. I’d even go so far as to say he’s the love of my life, and the thought of a future without him in it now didn’t even register in my mind.

Still, every time I looked at him, all the things he said came back, and the next thing I knew, I was insulting and yelling at him. Every single time, I wanted to apologize, but my stupid Berserker pride got in the way, and it literally felt like my tongue was made of silver.

Now, he was really the only person I could rely on to save me. I just hoped he would. After all the names I’d called him and little things I’d insulted, I wouldn’t want to save me, either.

I drummed my fingers against one of my thighs, watching as a group of the wild dragons surrounded Fishlegs, growling and sneering at him. I’d made it clear to the creatures last night that I wasn’t messing around, and although I tried to do the same for Fishlegs, he did nothing to hide his fear, and dragons were very perceptive of that sort of thing.

Tensions rose when the rest of the dragons parted, making way for a particularly nasty Nadder that I’d assumed was their leader. It opened its wings to Fishlegs, making itself look as big as possible to intimidate him before it leaned down, sniffing the Viking as he backed up. I understood that interfering might prove deadly for my fellow captive, but if it came down to it, I was ready to step in. After all, I had quite a few tricks up my sleeve thanks to a certain dragon trainer.

“You may not know this, but where I come from, I’m known as a friend to all dragons,” Fishlegs trembled, his voice breaking and stuttering. That definitely wasn’t going to help, and not just because the dragons probably couldn’t understand him.

Finally, the Nadder stood up straight again, and I rushed over to Fishlegs’ side, helping him to his feet and standing straight and tall in front of him. It wasn’t until I looked at the Nadder and one of the Monstrous Nightmares from this angle that I noticed something strange.

“Whoa.” I clicked my tongue. “You sure do have a lot of scars, don’t you? All of you do, really.” Forgetting about the group we were dealing with, I reached out and tried to feel them, but they growled at me, causing me to snap my hand back to my side. “Fishlegs, do you see this?”

With a new sense of bravery, Fishlegs stood and moved to my side, taking note of the strange marks on the side of the Monstrous Nightmare’s head.

“That looks like an arrow mark.” My eyes widened as he tried to reach out to touch it, and just in time I dove and pulled him out of the way of the Nadder firing a magnesium blast. “Okay, okay… I get it. Touchy subject. No problem.”

Our attentions were suddenly directed away from that pair of dragons by the sound of hacking and choking, coming from a baby Gronckle. Fishlegs and I ran to the little dragon, getting as close as we could without any other dragon shooting at us, and it only took my companion a quick second to figure out what was going on.

“Reign, you stand near its mouth,” he ordered. “And be ready to catch.”

“On it.” I saluted him, as a gesture to lighten the mood, then moved around toward the front of the baby Gronckle, keeping myself alert.

The Monstrous Nightmare and Nadder loomed over our heads, roaring at us to try and scare us away from the little dragon.

“No, no, no, it’s okay… I can help,” Fishlegs assured them.

Using the right mixture of gentleness and strength, Fishlegs struck the baby Gronckle’s belly in three different places, causing it to spit up a shiny, black rock that landed right in my hands. The sticky saliva on it probably would have bothered me, if I hadn’t grown so used to it thanks to Toothless. The amount of times Hiccup came back from his trick flights with his Night Fury covered in the stuff…

“Ah. Quartzite. I thought so.” Fishlegs took the rock from my hands, trying to find the right place to dispose of it so that the other Gronckles wouldn’t run into the same issue. “Meatlug chokes on it all the time.”

The little Gronckle flew up and licked both Fishlegs’ and my cheeks, then hovered back toward the two Gronckles I assumed to be its parents. From behind us, I heard the Nightmare and Nadder communicating, and I hoped that this maybe would put us in their good graces. I had no idea how much longer we’d be stuck here, and things would be a lot easier if these dragons weren’t ready to kill us on a moment’s notice.

“Psst.” Fishlegs and I whipped around, spotting Hiccup peering out from behind a rock. For whatever reason, I tried my best not to show my relief. “Hey, Fishlegs, Reign, we’re here to rescue you. Are you guys okay?”

“Hiccup!” Fishlegs cried.

“Yes, yes, it’s me. Let’s go while they’re not looking.” I glanced back at the dragons, and something in my heart told me I just wasn’t ready to leave them yet. If Hiccup wasn’t completely done with me yet, this might seal it.

“Look at these dragons,” I whispered, not making direct eye contact. “They have scars all over them.”

“Well, this is quite a diverse pack. They probably fight all the time. Now, can we just get out of here?” Sometimes, he could be so dense.

“The scars aren’t from other dragons, Hiccup,” I corrected, rolling my eyes. “They’re from humans. Those are arrow wounds, bola scars.”

“Dragon Hunters.” Thank Thor he finally caught on. “That explains why dragons that can be trained would be so aggressive.”

“They attack humans ‘cause they’ve all been hurt by Dragon Hunters.” That still left a question in the air—a piece of the puzzle that didn’t quite make sense.

“Why would Dragon Hunters come near this place?” Hiccup pondered, reading my mind. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he straightened. “Unless, they drove Johann here on purpose.”

“Knowing he would send for us?” Fishlegs and Hiccup put it all together for me. My heart started to hammer in my chest the longer I thought about it.

“It was a trap and we flew right into it.”

As much as I hated to think it, we had more important things to worry about than these injured dragons. If we didn’t get back to the Edge soon, it might be completely destroyed.

“Speaking of flying, where’s Meatlug?” Hiccup’s cheeks turned a little red.

“They’re right over that ridge. Johann’s riding her.”

Immediately, Fishlegs’ face contorted, drawing down his eyebrows to display an anger so rarely found with him. There was something almost frightening about it, sending a chill through my bones.

“Johann?” He made absolutely no effort to keep his voice down. “You let Johann ride my Meatlug. _My_ Meatlug?”

That did us in. Meatlug heard her rider’s voice, and as anyone would have expected, came barreling in toward us, catching the attention of the wild dragons. Not long after that, they noticed Hiccup and Toothless, and I felt a hand grab onto me, yanking me behind a rock to protect me from the fires. Toothless and the wild dragons fought with each other, and of course Snotlout provided no help, until Meatlug circled back around. Across the way, I watched Fishlegs stand up, sticking a hand out in front of him when the two Gronckles from earlier jumped out to defend him.

“Meatlug, no!” As she stopped in midair, Hiccup jumped out from behind our rock and onto Toothless’ back. “There’s too many of them and they don’t know how lovable and awesome you are. It’s all right. Don’t you worry.”

Reluctantly, Hiccup, Snotlout, and Johann turned around and headed back for the safety of the cliffs, completely disappearing from our view. Fishlegs and I were right back where we started, but for now, that was okay. I didn’t want any of them risking getting hurt just for a little rescue. Besides, Astrid was back on the Edge helping to defend it, which hopefully meant the Dragon Hunters had barely made a dent.

The sun had disappeared again before our rescuers could come up with another plan, leaving Fishlegs and I with plenty of time to sit around and talk. The wild dragons brought us over some fish from their daily hunt, and although it was raw, it was better than nothing. By this point, I was pretty sure I had an iron stomach.

“Can I ask you something without you yelling at me?” I furrowed my brows at Fishlegs, laughing a little.

“Of course, Fishlegs, I think it’s hard for me to get mad at you,” I assured him.

“You seem like you really miss Hiccup.” My eyebrow involuntarily rose. “I mean, aside from that point when you rolled your eyes, you two were just talking like everything was normal. So, what’s keeping you from just making up with him?”

My shoulders slumped down as I sighed, defeated.

“He threw some pretty awful accusations at me, Fishlegs; he said some really terrible things. And normally, I can deal with insults, or people claiming that I don’t really love Hiccup because they don’t get it, but to hear it from him directly… it made me feel like the last three years have meant absolutely nothing to him.”

Fishlegs remained quiet for a moment, allowing me to come back in with another point.

“Sometimes, I think it’s hard for him to understand this whole thing with my family,” I admitted, my hands flying to that necklace I still couldn’t bear to take off. “I know that Dagur has done nothing but try to kill us, but Heather told me that… that he’s been trying to protect me, even with the Dragon Hunters.”

“Oh, wow.”

“Yeah. And of course I hated the idea of Heather hiding among the Dragon Hunters. I haven’t known she’s my sister for very long, but now that I do, it’s like I just have this overwhelming instinct to protect her; thinking about her being among those violent, burly men _terrifies_ me. But, I also know she’s capable of defending herself, and we’ve been getting valuable information from her.” It suddenly occurred to me I didn’t breathe through that entire sentence. “Most of you guys are only children. You don’t know what it’s like to feel that need to defend your family, even if they’ve done unspeakable things. And… I got mad at him for that—for not understanding. And for accusing me of pretending to love him.”

It took Fishlegs a while to process all that, not that I blamed him. I unloaded everything I’d been spewing to Astrid for weeks.

“I feel terrible about everything I’ve said to him since,” I admitted, burying my face in my hands. “Even after all this, I still want to spend the rest of my life with him; there isn’t a future I want to think of without him in it. But every time I try to talk to him, either he starts getting cold with me, or I get so fed up that I start yelling at him.”

I didn’t expect for Fishlegs to scoot closer and hug me, but it was certainly welcome.

“You just have to get your words out. Say to him what you just said to me, besides the yelling part, and I think everything will work out.” He offered me a smile. “You two are meant for each other.”

After a moment, I hugged him back, thankful I had such wonderful friends.

“Thanks, Fishlegs,” I sighed. “That made me feel a lot better about this. Now, we should get some sleep. Hopefully, Hiccup and the others can get us out of here in the morning.”

I hadn’t been laying down for very long, when something nuzzling my face caused me to bolt upright, my heart climbing up my throat. It took quite a bit for me to calm down and realize it was Shriek, but once I did, a wave of relief washed over me, and I bent down to hug her.

“Oh, I’m so glad to see you, girl,” I whispered, giving her one last squeeze before standing to face Snotlout, Johann, and Fishlegs.

“We came to rescue you,” Snotlout announced quietly. “Now, get on your dragons and let’s get out of here before those lunatic dragons wake up and their pals come back.”

“But where’s Hiccup?” I asked, ignoring the smug look that crossed Snotlout’s face.

“He’s our distraction for said lunatic dragons.” That was _not_ what I wanted to hear.

“I’m sorry, _what_?” Snotlout lunged forward and pushed me a little, making me fall onto Shriek.

“Come on. Let’s just catch up with him.”

The three of us got up onto our dragons, and we forced Johann to ride with Fishlegs for the time being. We didn’t get too far out, when we caught up with Hiccup, who had the whole pack of wild dragons trailing him. I tried my best to ignore it, the two of us offering each other a courteous smile.

“Uh… excuse me?” Fishlegs shouted, hovering up to our level. “Did you know there’s an entire pack of angry wild dragons following you?”

“You don’t say?” Hiccup chuckled, smirking at the wary Viking.

“You’re losing your touch, Hiccup,” Snotlout scoffed. “I mean, they’re literally, like, right behind you.”

“I know that, Snotlout. I couldn’t be happier about it.” Hopefully, that meant he had some sort of plan with these dragons.

“All right! Hiccup has officially lost his mind.” I shot Snotlout a glare, trying to silence him.

“Well, they’re not trying to eat us, so I’d say something’s changed,” I shrugged, throwing Hiccup the benefit of the doubt.

“They saw my wings and they knew I wasn’t a threat.” Only now did I notice the furled up cloths of Dragonfly Two were out from under his armor.

“This is an amazing discovery,” Fishlegs gushed, bouncing from excitement.

“And we have the Dragon Hunters to thank for it.” I hadn’t been paying attention to the horizon, but Thor, did I wish I had.

“Speaking of which, is that not Heather?”

Hope enveloped me completely as I set my eyes on the silver dragon heading straight for us. Knowing that my sister was all right definitely would make a few things better. It wasn’t until Windshear got closer that I realized her rider was blonde… which definitely meant she wasn’t Heather.

No, instead, Ruffnut was flying her.

She pulled Windshear to a halt in front of us, forcing us to do the same.

“There you are!” Ruffnut exclaimed, letting out what sounded like a relieved exhale. “Hey, where’d you get all the cool dragons?”

“Long story,” I dismissed, more focused on what exactly she was doing here. “Why are you riding Windshear?”

“Equally long story.” I supposed that was the answer I deserved. “Right now, we need to get back to the Edge before there’s no Edge to get back to.”

I gasped, completely forgetting about the trap we’d been lured into. Immediately, all of us sped up to follow behind Ruffnut and Windshear, praying to Odin we would get back in time. The flight felt endless, riddled with all sorts of different kinds of tension, but the familiar home island finally appeared on the horizon as the sun started to peek up behind us.

The Dragon Hunter ships were strangely inactive, and the huts on the Edge didn’t look like they’d even sustained a little bit of damage. In fact, it almost appeared most of the boats were pulling away. Just like I’d hoped, Astrid and the twins were able to defend the Edge just fine. Still we had a few loose people to deal with. Hiccup had Toothless fired a plasma blast at Ryker, just before he could do harm to Tuffnut, and I booked it for the other end of the beach, spotting my brother there. He’d been laying on the ground right up until Shriek and I got close, and the moment he saw the two of us coming, he scrambled for one last escape boat.

Good thing, too, because I really didn’t want to do any permanent damage.

With that taken care of, I helped blast away the last of the Dragon Hunters and sunk a few of their escape boats. That settled that.

The last of the Hunters were gone, and I took that as my cue to fly back to Hiccup. He, on the other hand, had his eyes trained on someone in particular, but it was definitely best if he saw the two of us still standing together.

“Ryker!” he shouted. The Hunter turned to face the two of us, smirking as he raised an arm.

“We will meet again, Hiccup Haddock!”

As Heather, Dagur, and Windshear swooped down to pick him up, I caught eyes with her, and we nodded at each other. Once she was out of my sight, I let a sigh escape, collapsing onto my dragon. This was getting harder every time.

“Hey.” I cast my eyes to my left, finding Hiccup offering me a supportive smile. “You know your sister; she’ll be just fine.”

I nodded, thanking him for what he’d just said.

Once we deemed it safe to land back on the Edge, Hiccup and I rushed up to Astrid, extremely impressed at their defensive abilities.

“How did you manage to hold them off for so long?” Hiccup asked with a bright smile on his face.

“It’s called teamwork,” she smirked. “Right, Tuff?”

“I’ll go along with that. Since I am the captain of Team Tuffnut.” Astrid rolled her eyes at him, but they appeared to be getting along better than when I last saw her. She came into her hut fuming about how they’d skipped out on duty a few mornings ago, and I swore she was about to take their heads off.

“Well, you must be feeling extra guilty.” Ruffnut crossed her arms against her chest, raising an eyebrow at the blonde across from her.

“Actually, I am.”

“And sorry.”

“Definitely.”

“And completely, 100 percent embarrassed and exposed.” Astrid’s gaze lowered, indicating the nerve had been struck. “Too much? Sorry. I accept your apology, my dear Astrid.”

Once that wrapped itself up, Fishlegs opened the door to the stables, sending out the squawks and grumbles of a dozen wild dragons trapped inside. He said we just didn’t have the room for them, and unfortunately, Hiccup and I had to agree, so everyone saddled up, and we led them back to their island. It wasn’t an easy departure, considering how they’d been treated, but it had to be done.

I made up my mind when we got back to the Edge. The others had already headed back to their huts, and after taking a deep breath to calm myself, I approached Hiccup and tapped his shoulder, getting him to turn around.

“Can we… maybe talk?” I held my breath, waiting for his answer.

Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed.

“Absolutely.”


	24. Shock and Awe

The morning fog hung so thick in the air, I could barely see out the windows of the clubhouse. Shadows and flashes of sunlight that managed to break through were really the only discernable things out there, not that we really needed to worry at the moment. Hopefully, our latest tussle with the Dragon Hunters would keep them away for quite a while, giving us some time to focus on other things. For once, Reign actually seemed calm about the whole thing, not really viewing her family as a threat anymore.

For the first time, I was starting to understand the way she looked at them. The two of us had a long talk right after the last Dragon Hunter attack, lasting all the way through to the night. She raised a good point about it being difficult for me to understand what it’s like to have siblings, and she appeared to understand when I explained just how much it hurt that she lied. Other things pervaded as well, including the understanding that there might be things we go to other people about first, but we’d always go to the other when we were ready; at first, I tried to bring up the idea of pulling Heather out again, but the moment Reign mentioned Viggo, I remembered just why we were doing this in the first place.

We weren’t quite back to the point we’d been at before, despite both knowing that we loved each other, but we were getting closer. And, right now, we were getting back to spending time with just the two of us.

“You in there?”

Reign’s voice snapped me out of my daze, bringing my attention back to her. She blinked at me with a smile on her face, her head leaning down to the point where her hair threatened to fall into the fire.

“Oh, uh… yeah, sorry, I just got lost thinking,” I stuttered.

“What about?” I straightened a little, not quite sure I could answer that question honestly yet. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have thought twice about blurting it out, but right now? It might be a little touchy.

“How quiet it is,” I sighed, stirring my breakfast slightly. “How we don’t have to worry about Dragon Hunters. How, for the moment, everyone’s getting along.” I resisted the urge to take her hand. “It’s almost perfect.” Her eyebrow went back up toward her hairline.

“Almost?”

Before I got the chance to say anything on that, I heard the flapping of Meatlug’s wings, and sure enough, Meatlug and Fishlegs were barreling toward us, the latter hyperventilating with wide eyes. The two of us immediately jumped to our feet, concerned about his panicked state. Clearly, we caused quite the commotion, because the other Riders were drawn toward us as Fishlegs began to explain.

“Sea… monster…” He kept on gasping until Reign brought him a mug of fresh water. “There’s a creature in the cove!”

“Whoa, whoa, Fishlegs, calm down.” He took a moment to catch his breath. “Can you describe it for us?” My words definitely seemed to help, which was always encouraging.

“It had two heads, maybe three. And it made this weird sound, like nothing I’d ever heard before.” At this point, Fishlegs was bouncing on his feet, the realization that he’d discovered something new hitting him. “It was like a…” He let out some sort of strange roar; there was something vaguely familiar about it, but I couldn’t quite place the source.

“Oh, my Thor. That’s incredible, Fishlegs,” Snotlout gasped, clutching his helmet tightly.

“I know, right?” Once the question left his mouth, Snotlout’s enthusiastic façade dropped away, leaving the normal snarky and sarcastic Viking we all knew he was.

“Wrong!” Reign flinched at the sudden shouting, causing her to stumble back against my shoulder. “Not getting me on Loki Day. If it isn’t already obvious to you all, I am way smarter than—“

Before anyone could stop him, Snotlout walked right into a rope hanging down from one of the doorways of the clubhouse, causing him to get strung up by his foot.

“Obviously.” Fishlegs rolled his eyes. “Much smarter.”

“Loki’d!” The twins exclaimed gleefully as they slid out from their hiding places

“Ha, ha, ha,” Snotlout drawled, “fine. You got me. But I still don’t believe Fishlegs about that creature.” The way Tuffnut’s face changed couldn’t mean anything good.

“Creature in the Edge Lagoon.” He swept his arm out and across, creating a grand sort of emphasis on something only one of us had seen. “Just when you thought it was safe to take a bath in a lagoon.”

Everyone just stared at Tuffnut, making sure he’d finished with his usual dramatics before we went back to the topic at hand.

“Okay. Any day now.” On my command, Toothless fired a plasma blast at the rope, causing Snotlout to drop down. “Thanks. Much appreciated.”

“You can Loki all you want,” Fishlegs challenged. “I know what I saw.” As much as I wanted to believe him, the evidence really wasn’t pointing in his favor.

“We’ve been swimming and fishing in that cove for months, Fishlegs,” Reign pointed out. “Don’t you think we would’ve seen something if there was something in there?”

“You sure it wasn’t just the light coming through the fog?” Astrid inquired, hoping to find some sort of explanation for all of this. “It can play really weird tricks, especially at this hour.”

“Sounds more like someone got Loki’d by the fog.” Reign and I glanced at each other momentarily, shaking our heads.

“It wasn’t the fog you guys!” Fishlegs insisted. “There’s something out there. Something real. And, as usual, you won’t believe it until I prove it.”

Fishlegs turned on his heel and stormed out, jumping onto Meatlug once he reached the end of the platform. For a moment, I debated following him on Toothless to see what all of this was about, but I also understood Fishlegs wanted to be on his own when he was upset. Besides, there was a low chance that this creature was in fact there; as a frequent swimmer in that lagoon, I could confirm firsthand that I’d never seen anything in there. The opening of it didn’t flow in the right direction to bring anything in, not to mention that the freshwater environment steered away any of the oceanic dragons.

Settling back into our routine, Reign headed out for patrol with Astrid, while I went back to my hut with Toothless. It still felt too empty and quiet, but I was learning to manage and hoped that it wouldn’t last much longer. I’d started to fill most of the downtime in the afternoons with studying the Dragon Eye and the lenses. The only class I had difficulty unlocking was the Tidal Class, because as far as we knew, Shriek didn’t have a flame, but otherwise, I’d managed to take some pretty vigorous notes on every class; that lasted me a couple weeks, and I’d now moved on to expanding my map to accommodate for the islands sprinkled throughout the different lenses. Copying the images down wasn’t the problem, but figuring out where exactly they were meant to be proved to be quite the occupying challenge.

I was right in the middle of sketching out some mountains to represent a rockier island, when the door to my hut flew open, startling me. I could make out the outline of Fishlegs and Reign, both urgent. Fishlegs kept going on about how he’d come face-to-face with the creature, and that it even but him, but rather than accepting the offer to fix up the wound, he just wanted all of us to follow. Though I wasn’t too sure it was the smart option, I agreed and got onto the back of Toothless, helping Fishlegs wrangle up all the other Riders. Snotlout, as expected, didn’t give in as easily, but one glare from Reign and he caved.

It wasn’t until we’d nearly reached the lagoon that Fishlegs finally elaborated.

“The last time I saw the creature, it was heading for the deepest part of the cove.” I shifted the bucket attached to Toothless’ saddle, trying my best to reduce the horrid stench of the chum inside.

“Is it more like a giant fish? Or a big snake?” Reign inquired

“I don’t know,” Fishlegs admitted, his eyes falling downward, “it was hard to tell from underwater. Everything looked kind of fuzzy and misshapen.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t Meatlug?” Snotlout taunted him, cackling.

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

“Well, whatever it is, we’ll find it,” I assured him. The believability of his story still wasn’t quite at the point where I was all in, but at this point, we had the time to check it out.

We’d just about reached the lagoon when the twins, who had been lagging behind the rest of us up until that point, caught up, and Snotlout narrowed his gaze at them.

“Where did you two hide my axe?” he snapped. “I know it’s Loki Day, but come on, it was my favorite.”

“Okay, let’s fan out and find the creature.” There was something suspicious about how quickly Fishlegs spat that out, but I chose to ignore it. “Don’t get too close to the water.”

“How do we even know it’s real?”

“Because it bit me!” At this point, Fishlegs sounded exasperated, having to explain the same things to all of us over and over again. Just to prove his point, he stuck out his leg. I couldn’t see the marks, but the way Reign’s brow furrowed indicated something wasn’t right about what she was seeing.

“That doesn’t look like a bite.” She pointed to the mark. “That looks like a burn.”

That wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

“Grab your buckets,” I ordered the group. “We’re gonna chum the water to see if it’ll show itself again.”

“Not me.” Snotlout stuck his head high in the air, like he was actually doing something honorable. “No way. Loki Day trick. I can smell it from a mile away.”

“That might actually be the chum,” Reign joked, flashing him a smirk before following the rest of us up.

We’d planned to drop our buckets, but that opportunity never came. Snotlout remained down low, slightly obstructing the view. Still, I could spot something large darting back and forth under the water, seemingly stalking the prey above before it started to circle around where Snotlout and Hookfang were hovering.

“Uh, Snotlout?”

Too late. The creature lept out of the water, revealing itself completely; the long, flat body with two heads was extremely familiar, further cemented when it created a ball of electricity between the two heads and slammed it against Hookfang, sending him flying away. I’d seen that ‘creature’ thousands of times—whenever I flipped through the Book of Dragons.

“That’s… that’s not a creature at all…” Fishlegs gasped, his eyes widening.

“It’s a dragon.”

“And not just any dragon. It’s a Seashocker!”

Considering how high it could jump above the water, we all decided it would be best to land and watch from the shores. Reign and I kept an eye on the still lagoon, occasionally catching a glimpse at the Seashocker as it darted around, approaching the wall Fishlegs and Meatlug had put up in order to keep it for observation. While the two of us tried to figure out just how exactly it ended up here, Fishlegs bounded back and forth behind us, still coming off the high from the new discovery.

“A Seashocker! Right in our cove! And I found him!” he cheered.

“You mean you trapped him.” Technically, Tuff had a point. But the Seashocker would prove an interesting study for the moment.

“I didn’t tr—“ Fishlegs’ hands balled up into fists. “Argh!”

“I gotta tell you, Fishlegs, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I’m not sure I’d believe it,” I gushed, trying to help keep his spirits high.

“Right?” he beamed. “Seashockers are extremely difficult to spot because they hardly ever surface.” Snotlout sighed and shook his head, but it did nothing to discourage our excitement.

“Yes, because they’re deep water dragons,” I continued.

“Exactly. Which explains why it didn’t take my bait.”

“It only eats deep sea fish!” we both shouted at the same time. From behind me, I could’ve sword I heard Reign laugh.

The twins mumbled something to each other that just slipped past my earshot, but whatever the setup was, it ended with Ruffnut falling down into a well-disguised hole, clearly created by her brother. Normally, I would’ve tried to shut all this down, but the Seashocker was much more important in this scenario, so I just turned around and trusted that they’d deal with that on their own.

“How lucky are we?” Fishlegs chuckled, his eyes shining as he stared out at the water. “To be able to study a Seashocker this closely?”

As though it heard us, the Seashocker broke through the surface of the water, creating a threatening ball of energy before its two heads dipped right back under, resuming its pattern of circling and darting.

“Okay, but we have to be careful,” I cautioned. “We don’t want to hurt the dragon.”

“Oh, Hiccup, when would I ever hurt a dragon?” Filled with a renewed sense of excitement, I turned back to the rest of the group—save for the twins, who were still working out their issues with the hole prank—unable to contain my grin.

“Gang? You up for studying this dragon?” Snotlout and Astrid agreed pretty quickly, but I watched as Reign hesitated, her fingers running over the silver pendant of her necklace. I gestured for the others to go, then approached her. “Everything okay Reign?” Her eyes remained glued to the Seashocker.

“It keeps going to the wall,” she muttered, watching the dragon’s erratic patterns. “See? I don’t think it wants to be here.” Not wanting to push things too far, I placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Reign, this is a chance to study a rare dragon up close. This is the sort of thing we live for.” Still, she bit down on her lip and shook her head.

“I just feel bad. It’s probably scared and confused, and now it’s got these strange dragons and people staring at it like it’s some freak.” I felt a pang of guilt in my chest.

“You don’t have to come with if you want.” Something about that finally brought a tiny smile back to her face.

“Nah, I’ll still come,” she shrugged. “Who’s gonna keep you from getting shocked?”

I stared at her for a moment, caught off guard. That came pretty close to how we talked to each other before everything. Clearly, it wasn’t as big a deal for her, as she just whistled for Shriek and waited for Toothless and I, but the question left my head spinning, even when we met back up with the others and watched the Seashocker under the clear waters.

“Look at how fluidly it moves through the water.” Fishlegs definitely had stars in his eyes at this point. “Truly masterful.”

“What is it even doing here?” Snotlout scoffed, pointing down at the dragon like it was nothing special.

“It must’ve gotten separated from its pod,” Reign concluded, running with her point about the confusion. “Otherwise, I don’t know how it could’ve gotten here on its own.” All of us watched as the Seashocker’s movements grew more jarring and frantic.

“It looks kind of agitated.” Astrid’s voice fell weary for a moment.

“Great idea, Fishlegs!” Snotlout’s arm shot up into the air as he got more and more worked up. “Let’s mess with the angry zapper-heads.”

Reign’s words back on the beach bounced around in my head again, and I found myself giving in to all this; I didn’t want to be the reason a dragon was in distress, especially one that already had been plucked out of the blue and separated from the group it was meant to travel with.

“Yeah, I actually agree with Snotlout on this one,” I admitted. “The Seashocker looks stressed. We should help it out of the cove.” Fishlegs, however, remained stubborn and insistent.

“I know, I know, I know,” he dismissed quickly, “but after I get some measurements. Reign, can you position yourself near the tail, and then I’ll come over here and…” Reign sighed, but still flew Shriek over to where Fishlegs pointed, helping him get the measurements faster so that we could get the distressed dragon out of the cove.

“He’s not listening to you.” Snotlout said that like I hadn’t noticed.

“I know,” I sighed.

“This is a really bad idea.”

“Yes, it is.”

“You should listen to me more often.” I wasn’t about to get caught in that pattern.

“Nah, I shouldn’t.”

At first, everything appeared to be going well—the Seashocker passed by frequently enough for Fishlegs to get accurate measurements, and the dragon remained under the water, just attempting to find its means of escape. Whatever Fishlegs determined, I couldn’t quite hear from where we hovered, but the moment he finished, I spotted light underneath the waves, causing my heartbeat to pick up. Thankfully, Shriek and Fishlegs got out of the way in time, but it got a little too close to hurting them for comfort.

“All right, Fishlegs. I think we’ve seen enough,” I intervened.

“Don’t worry. This kind of impulse behavior is completely age appropriate.”

My fists clenched against Toothless’ saddle. How could he be so calm and casual about a dragon that had already shocked him on multiple occasions, and now had tried to take someone else down in the process?

Whatever we’d done, the Seashocker was fired up now. The moment it touched down in the water, it prepared another ball of energy, immediately launching itself out of the water and toward Toothless and I. On instinct, he fired a plasma blast at the restless dragon, but thankfully missed. In response to the obvious danger, all the other dragons took their defensive measures, even with our protests. No one got really close to the Seashocker, until Astrid lost control of Stormfly for a moment. Her Nadder let go of a few spines, and one of them managed to strike the Seashocker’s wing dead-on, causing it to cry out in pain before it managed to sling itself up onto the sand, panting in pain.

“Oh, no. He’s hurt.” Fishlegs whipped around and glared at the source of the spine. “Astrid!”

“Stormfly was just reacting to being attacked,” Astrid defended.

“Yeah, Fishlegs, what did you expect?” Snotlout and Hookfang flew down from their position far above the conflict.

“All right, everybody just calm down,” Reign shouted, having reached her breaking point. “We need to get the Seashocker back into the sea.”

Filled with regret, Fishlegs took off for the injured dragon first, moving to help as fast as he could.

“Still not listening,” Snotlout sang as he passed over my head.

“Snotlout!” Reign patted Shriek to take on a burst of speed, passing him and cutting the two of them off.

Sure, it was petty, but I could see the old her peeking back through again.

Rather than landing and risking overwhelming the Seashocker, I decided to stay on Toothless up in the air, watching carefully as Fishlegs tried to approach it. At one point, the ball of energy it created between its two heads grew larger than expected, sending out a shockwave of energy that temporarily knocked Fishlegs down.

That was new.

“He needs to be with his pod, Fishlegs.” The longer he stalled, the direr this got. “It’s too dangerous for him to stay here.” Fishlegs turned away, not allowing me to see the expression on his face.

“I know, I know. You’re right.” He tapped his fingers together nervously. “Can you just give us a minute?” I cast my eyes up to Reign, who nodded, encouraging me to let this go.

“You got it. We’ll start blasting open the mouth of the cove.”

Snotlout, Astrid, and I remained high above the water, using our fire to break up and melt away the rock, while Reign and Shriek flew along the line of the wall, using the Thunderdrum’s sonic boom to blast away any remaining pieces and create large cracks. We hadn’t gotten rid over everything, but by the time Fishlegs got the spine out of the Seashocker and helped it back into the water, we’d created large enough holes for it to fit through.

“This way!” Fishlegs called down into the water, leading the Seashocker from Meatlug. “This way to freedom! Come on!”

The twins finally returned to our group, glancing at each other suspiciously.

“What’s going on?” Tuffnut inquired. “Don’t ask about your huts.”

“They can be fixed,” Ruff assured us. For the time being, I just chose to let it go, considering how helpful Barf and Belch could be in this scenario.

“Never mind.” I waved my hand dismissively. “We need your help to clear a path for the Seashocker. Blast the last of the lava wall.” Unfortunately, given the day, the twins weren’t so easy to just obey the command.

“How do we know this isn’t a trick, and when we blast the wall, the whole cove explodes?” I’d officially had enough of all this.

“Really?” With some reluctance, Barf and Belch sparked up their gas, discarding the last of the wall. “All right. Here they come.”

“Almost there. Just a little—“

Strangely enough, once the Seashocker got within reach of the mouth of the cove, it came to a halt, staring at its means of escape but not making an effort to get any closer. Considering how desperate it had been to escape just a short while ago, this didn’t make much sense.

“Wait, why are you stopping?” Fishlegs asked. “Freedom awaits!”

Something wasn’t right. Now, not only was the Seashocker not going out into the sea, but it actually turned around and headed back toward the shore, running from something.

With an uneasy stomach, I looked out into the water, trying to figure out what exactly could have spooked it. At first, it wasn’t easy to see anything, given how much cloudier the water of the ocean was, but once the speeding blobs got close enough, the gruesome picture clicked into place; of all the dragons we’d have to deal with, these were consistently some of the worst.

“Scauldrons!” The two water-spitting dragons jumped out of the water for a moment, confirming what I’d seen.

“Oh, no! Scauldrons are Seashockers’ natural predators,” Fishlegs lamented.

“All the noise from blasting the wall must have drawn them in.” Reign straightened up, tensing at the conclusion she’d reached.

“The wall.” Fishlegs looked back up, off into the horizon, horrified. “The one I put there. Meatlug, what have we done?”

“Fishlegs, there’s no way you could’ve known this would happen.” I stared at Reign, shocked she was actually defending the move for a moment. “What matters now is that we fix it.”

The Scauldrons chased the Seashocker in and out of the cove, forcing it around sea stacks and right up against the sand before turning it right back around again. They remained relentless in their pursuit, their flitting about indicating they were having fun with the hunt; not a surprise, considering Scauldrons’ aggressive natures.

“We have to do something!” Fishlegs echoed Reign’s words. “The Seashocker can’t fight off all these Scauldrons by himself.” Watching the way the three dragons swam, it didn’t take long for me to come up with something.

“Okay, spread out and flank the Scauldrons,” I shouted. “Just try and distract them.”

At first, the threat appeared manageable—after all, two Scauldrons against all of us wasn’t anything we hadn’t dealt with before. We just had to keep our eyes out, in case either of them brought their heads above water. The Seashocker’s attempts to defend itself went well, temporarily halting the Scauldrons in their movements, but when I looked down again, I noticed the number of Scauldrons had doubled. Another zap, and more appeared, creating practically a wall of the predators. 

“Every time it looks like he loses them, he zaps and then more come.” Fishlegs confirmed exactly what I was thinking.

“The Scauldrons must track the Shocker by following its shocks.” Considering it was the dragon’s only means of self-defense, that didn’t bode well.

By this point, the Scauldrons had started leaping out of the water, gaining significant ground on the nearly helpless Shocker. If we didn’t do something about those nuisances now, there was a chance that Shocker wouldn’t be leaving this cove at all.

“You stay away from him!”

Fishlegs swooped in suddenly on Meatlug, slamming themselves against a Scauldron to throw it off. Unfortunately, they got caught up in their victory, leaving them exposed and unaware of the next dragon coming for them from behind. It wasn’t until they were nearly bit in half that Toothless and I managed to catch up, blasting away one of them, while Shriek and Reign took on another that lept from the water.

“Whew! Thanks, guys!” I threw him a thumbs-up, while Reign winked, then the two of us circled back around to meet up with him. I cast my eyes back down, hoping the Shocker’s position would help us come up with another strategy, but I couldn’t spot any movement below the water.

“Where’d he go?” Astrid, who had previously been hovering just above the rippling surface, came back up toward us, her eyes wide with concern.

“He’s making a break for the opening.”

There was no way that Seashocker would be able to make it by itself, especially with all those Scauldrons chasing it. Even out in the open waters, Scauldrons’ tracking abilities would make the one lone dragon easy to find, especially after he sent out another shockwave that drew in another set of its predators.

“Two Scauldrons, moving fast!” Reign warned us.

“We’ll lay down some cover fire. Astrid and Reign, cut them off!” Their pair nodded at each other, somehow coordinating their attack without speaking, then they tapped their dragons to dive downward.

Shriek and Stormfly only flapped their wings once, when suddenly, they both got yanked backwards, causing their riders to cry out. It took a moment for me to notice the ropes tied around their stomachs, leading back to only one set of people.

“Loki’d!” the twins cheered, completely oblivious to the danger they’d just created.

“What? No! I cannot believe you two right now!” Fishlegs fumed, glaring at Ruff and Tuff. “Loki’ing right now.”

“Astrid and Reign are the crown jewels, my friend.” Whatever else was about to follow for Tuffnut’s reasoning, there was no way it would justify obscuring with a rescue. “When you get a shot at Loki’ing either of them, let alone _both_ of them at the same time, you gotta take it.”

Thankfully, Astrid and Reign managed to pull their dragons back together and get the ropes off in just a matter of seconds. Both of them seethed at the twins, appearing ready to cut them into pieces if either of the twins made another wrong move.

“We’ll talk later,” Astrid growled, her undisguised threat hanging in the air. “Oh yes, we will.”

“Hiccup, would you _please_ tell them that they have to stop doing all these Loki tricks?” 

I was fully prepared to chew them out, scolding them for getting in the way consistently, but after a second of thinking—maybe not enough time to really consider the consequences, but we were running out of options—I realized that may not have been the right approach. The pranks had gotten in the way before, but maybe… maybe we could use them to our advantage now.

“Fishlegs, I think Loki might actually be the key to saving the Seashocker.” He looked at me like I’d lost my mind, understandably so.

“Now you’re talking!” I could already tell the twins’ minds were racing.

“I wouldn’t get too excited if I were you.” Immediately, their expressions fell.

“Why?”

“There’s too many Scauldrons for us to take down, right?” Everyone nodded. “But, there is one creature I can think of that serves as the natural enemy to the Scauldron—or any dragon, for that matter. It’s risky, but I think it’s our only option at this point. Ruff, Tuff, you take the chum we didn’t use and head out toward the eastern sea. And make sure you have your rope ready. They’re definitely going to put up a fight.”

Though they were still confused, the twins followed my instructions. I waited until they were gone to face the others, who were all waiting for me to explain.

“For now, the rest of us should just keep helping the Seashocker fend off the Scauldrons. We’ve lost time, so we have to pick up the pace.”

Without leaving anyone time to ask questions, I turned Toothless around, readying him for an attack. The Scauldrons appeared to catch on to the fact we were just hovering there, and one of them took their chance, shooting a stream of boiling hot water right into the middle of our group.

“Can someone please tell me why we’re risking everything to help this thing?” Snotlout panted, still recovering from the shock just a moment ago.

Suddenly, the Scauldrons picked up the pace of their firing, forcing all of us to dodge constantly and stay on the alert. Their heads came up one right after the other, only leaving a small window for Astrid to try and take the shot. But, by the time Stormfly got close enough, all of them ducked back under, making the images of their bodies warped and distorted.

“They’re underwater. I can’t get a clear shot.” Still, she followed their movements to try and at least get something in.

“They’re in a feeding frenzy,” I informed her. “It’s too dangerous for to get any closer.”

Fishlegs, however, refused to listen. Breaking through the group, he and Meatlug hovered as close to the water as they could get, watching the explosions of electricity light up the depths… until, inexplicably, they flickered out, the movements of the Seashocker disappearing altogether. My heart stopped as I ran my eyes frantically over the water, hoping for some sort of sign of life.

“Hiccup, did he just…” The Scauldrons turning around and starting to swim away sealed his fate.

“We tried everything, Fishlegs.” Reign flew a little closer to the two of us, reaching over to set a hand on my arm. Without thinking, I placed my hand over hers, squeezing it gently. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too, Fishlegs.” As much as I hated thought of it, we didn’t have much of a reason to stay here. “I guess we should head back.”

Reign and I released our hold on each other, turning our dragons back toward the direction of the Edge. We hadn’t gone very far, when we noticed one of our group members wasn’t with us. Fishlegs still hovered over the spot in the water, completely unmoving.

“Fishlegs…” I expected him to look up with regret, but instead, determination burned in his eyes.

“Hiccup, he is a fighter. He’s gonna make—“

And then, with all the grandeur of the glorious miracle it was, the Seashocker jumped from under the water, sailing over Fishlegs’ head before dipping back down below the waves, letting out a triumphant battle cry. This fight was _far_ from over.

“Yes!” Fishlegs threw his fists into the air. “He lives! He lives! Fishlegs!”

The apparent miracle of our situation only furthered, even with the panic it started as: a Scauldron emerged from the water, aiming itself right at Fishlegs, when the twins came back through the mouth of the cove, dragging something along behind them on a rope. When I glanced down into the water, I expected to see a swarm of electric eels, but instead, there was just one large one, feisty and snapping at the ropes.

“Giant zapping eel!” Snotlout immediately began to panic, getting Hookfang further from the water.

“I’m pretty sure I said a few small eels,” I sighed as I glanced back at the twins.

“On Loki Day, you go big or you go home,” Tuffnut shrugged. Even though it wasn’t what we’d planned, the Scauldrons still started to trail the eel, paying attention to the zaps.

“It’s working!” Fishlegs cheered. “The zapping eel is confusing the Scauldrons.”

“Who knew you could Loki Scauldrons?”

The dark hour finally seemed behind us; we could get this Seashocker out and find its pack, and we’d be in the clear. It sounded difficult, but with all of us on the case, it was more than possible.

“Let’s Loki ‘em even more. Come on, bud.”

Every Rider’s dragon started firing into the water, sending the Scauldrons scattering either from the noise or the intense heat coming toward them. The combination of the eel and the fire from the dragons left the Seashocker with a straight shot out of the lagoon. This time, when Fishlegs led him in the right direction, he burst through to the other side, swimming in a circle before starting out into the vast unknown.

“We did it, Hiccup! We saved him!”

The victory tasted sweet… until another shadow came darting through the water, barreling straight for the new escapee.

“Another Scauldron.”

As I was racking my brain, trying to come up with some way to keep the Scauldron from chasing the Seashocker all the way out to sea, Fishlegs stood up on the back of Meatlug, taking a deep breath before he jumped down into the depths, disappearing under the surface of the water.

“Fishlegs!”

I felt a rush of air beside me as Reign and Shriek came to a sudden stop. She leaned forward on the back of her dragon, desperately staring down into the water in hopes that we would see _anything_.

A surge of electricity beneath the water created a large ball of white hot lightning, sending it outward toward all the Scauldrons and launching Fishlegs right back out, screaming and flailing in the air. The force of the shock was so violent, it sent him all the way back into the cove, crashing down onto the sand of the shores. Reign and I immediately booked it for the downed Rider, sprinting off our dragons and crouching by his side.

“Fishlegs, are you all right?” He twitched one last time, still reeling from the electrical shock, then offered the two of us a weak smile.

“That must’ve blown him twenty yards!” Ruff marveled, throwing her arm out to demonstrate. “New record!”

“Don’t worry, Fishlegs. In time, you’ll be able to feel your legs again.” Tuffnut clearly intended his words to be encouraging, but I failed to see how that worked. “I mean, probably.”

“That was one of the gutsiest moves I’ve ever seen, Fishlegs.” Coming from Astrid, that meant a lot.

“Hey, it’s nothing I wouldn’t have done,” Snotlout scoffed.

“Then, why didn’t you do it?” Reign challenged, smirking at him.

“’Cause I wanted to give Fishlegs a taste of the Snot. Tastes good, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

With our help, Fishlegs got to his feet, just in time to see the Seashocker jump up and sail through the air a bit. We all wanted to make sure that the thing got back to its pack safely, so we hopped onto our dragons and flew back out. Three more Seashockers appeared, scaring off the last few brave Scauldrons that dared to come anywhere near, and once they felt safe, they started to swim away.

“Look at that, Fishlegs.” Astrid turned to smile at the Viking. “You did it. You won.”

“ _We_ won.”

Though the sun had nearly set, our day wasn’t quite over. Once all of us got back, a majority of our group got to talking, and we finally decided it was time to get the twins back for all those tricks they played on us today. Surprisingly, things didn’t take long to set up, and once we all felt ready, I summoned for the twins. Reign and I stood in my hut, ready for them to appear. 

Faintly, I could hear voices outside, and when the door finally opened, fish came spilling down onto the twins’ heads—a payback for when their dragon did the same to me. They stared at Reign and I with wide eyes as we laughed.

“Loki’d!” the two of us jeered at the same time.

Toothless’ shots chased them back out, where they were officially out of our hair.

By that time, we were almost in darkness, so Reign decided to just stay here to eat before heading back to Astrid’s. But the way we laughed and spoke through dinner… it was the closest to the way things had been.

It felt warm and normal for her to be back here. And, with the way she smiled at me before she left, I hoped she thought the same.


	25. A Time to Skrill (Reign)

**_Relax, I did my research. Thunderdrums can actually shoot a ball of fire, it’s just a rarely used attack._ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -_ **

The dark, quickly rolling clouds over our heads only allowed small slats of light through, acting as spotlights for the absolute nothingness around us. Dead trees served as their own shadows, but proved no more phenomenal against the grey slate that made up the island. The only flashes of color for miles came in the form of our group of seven, who were spread out and turning over rocks and dried leaves to attempt and find some sort of answer to the sudden mass migration to elsewhere. I ran my fingers along the striped cliffs, looking closely for dents from catapults or nicks from arrows that could confirm the theory we formed before heading out this way; taking such a long trip only to come up empty-handed would just prove to be a waste of time, and I wasn’t willing to let that happen.

Our group had been tasked with investigating Outcast Island after scouts from the A-Team spotted what looked like the entire populous fleeing in the opposite direction of their home. The scouting Riders tried to ask anyone on the five ships what they were doing, but everyone just mumbled or spoke panicked gibberish or shouted about running for their lives; Alvin proved no more useful, unable to describe what exactly happened in a comprehensible way.

At first, we assumed it would be Dragon Hunters. Their attacks would explain why the Outcasts were frantic and eager to get away from their island, and I assumed the group had no idea these Hunters existed, which offered explanation as to why Alvin wasn’t sure what exactly they’d been dealing with. It felt foolproof, until Astrid reminded us that the Outcasts didn’t ride on dragons like we did, nor did they have any on the island for the Hunters to go after. If anything, they would’ve gone to try and form an alliance, and that’s not exactly the sort of thing one flees from.

So, there we stood on Outcast Island, desperately searching for an answer that so far didn’t look like it existed.

“Weird.” Hiccup turned to me, shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t see any arrows or spears.”

“No boulders or catapults,” Fishlegs confirmed, standing back up.

“This really doesn’t seem like a Dragon Hunter attack.” I shook my head, more confused than ever.

“Well, whoever did this meant business.” Astrid moved away from the downed mast of a ship she’d been studying, still smoldering and releasing tendrils of dark smoke.

“And where did everybody go?”

“Remember, they evacuated,” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“What could possibly scare the Outcasts off their own island?” As usual, the twins had to interject with their own runaway ideas.

“Mutton famine?” Tuffnut suggested.

“Bed bugs? Once those things show up, you can never get rid of ‘em.” I gagged, shaking away that image.

“I think this has something to do with it.”

In the time that I’d been focusing on the twins, Hiccup had wandered away, moving over to a different area of search we hadn’t reached yet. Once I reached him, I stared up at what he’d spotted, my brows practically furrowing down over my eyes. Strange cracks ran through the stone, creating a very distinct pattern. It almost looked like a bolt of lightning, sent from Asgard by Thor himself.

“These scorch marks… do these look familiar to anyone?”

It took me another moment of staring at them, but when the idea popped into my head, I gasped, already backing toward my dragon.

“Hiccup, do you think it could be…” Hiccup caught onto what I was thinking in a split second. “We have to go. _Now_.” I tried to sling a leg over Shriek’s body, but a hand yanked me back.

“Are you going to be okay if we go there?” Hiccup’s determination had melted into worry. “It’s extremely cold there.” I shrugged, pushing his hand off and taking a seat on my dragon’s saddle.

“Nothing will ever compare to the deep freeze of Glacier Island.” Thankfully, that made him smile. “Besides, this is far more important.”

I led the way to the familiar peak of ice, completely devoid of any sort of life. The way it stuck out in the middle of nowhere almost appeared to be taunting me, reminding me of how easy it was to keep track of the thing. The sense of urgency kept me from feeling the cold once we were in range of the glacier, and the moment Shriek touched down, I scrambled off her back and toward the crevasse we’d sealed that dreaded dragon in.

Much to my dismay, the crack was split wide open, and completely dragonless.

“Yep. The Skrill is gone,” Snotlout groaned. Shaking my head, I pushed myself up from the snow and started to pace, my fingers twiddling my necklace’s silver pendant between them.

“That’s a good title for a song,” Tuffnut observed, unintentionally attempting to put a positive spin on this. “I’m gonna work on that when we get home.”

“How did this happen?” Fishlegs gasped.

“Shoddy workmanship, I’d say,” Tuff shrugged.

“Aren’t we the ones that sealed him in that big hole?” Tuffnut cleared his throat and directed his sister’s attention back toward there Zippleback.

I’d gotten so caught up in my pattern of pacing, I didn’t even notice when Hiccup stood and made his way over to me. It wasn’t until I crashed right into him that I realized there were other people around me, and I was so startled I nearly punched him.

“Uh… sorry, Hiccup,” I muttered, shaking my head. He chuckled and lowered my fist down, dismissing the bright red tint on my cheeks.

“Look, it doesn’t matter how it got out. We’ve got to get it back before it hurts anyone else.” I nodded, agreeing fully with his point.

“Or before Dagur gets ahold of it.” I bit down on one of my nails before my hand returned to that silver necklace.

“The question is, where is it headed?” Everyone looked to me, waiting for an answer. I suppose, given both my heritage and what I’d done the last time we’d run into the Skrill, they figured I would know the most about the dragon.

And I would’ve found that insulting… if I hadn’t studied every note and observation in the Book of Dragons, the Dragon Eye, and Bork’s papers. I wanted to be prepared if we ever ran into this thing again, and now, that was paying off.

“Since the Skrill gravitates towards storms to channel its lightning, I would say it’s following that storm headed due south from Outcast Island.” I gestured toward the group of clouds, emphasizing my point.

“Hey, isn’t Berk…” Snotlout froze mid-sentence, the chilling realization running through all of us. “Oh, no.”

Faster than I thought humanly possible, all of us took to our dragons and booked it straight for Berk, chasing the crescendo’s of thunder and the light show just above our heads. Unfortunately, we reached our home island a little too late, and the Skrill was already hovering over the village, terrorizing the A-Team that was just trying to contain the damage.

“Hey, look at that. The A-Team, already on the case,” Astrid beamed.

“Yeah, okay, it might be a little early in their dragon riding careers to…”

Before Hiccup got the chance to finish his sentence, the Skrill fired simultaneous blasts of lightning, knocking down all the Riders except for Spitelout. He tried to circle the hostile creature on his own, axe raised in the air, but a second blast knocked him right off the back of his Nadder, forcing Snotlout to dive for him.

“Cover the downed Riders!”

While everyone else went to go help out the A-Team, I turned Shriek around and headed directly for the Skrill itself, hoping that maybe it would just remember those two minutes when I managed to train him and helped free him from my brother… before we trapped him in a glacier for forced hibernation.

I tried to make sure this was as organized and safe as possible, but Shriek had other ideas, growling and beginning to thrash the moment her and the lightning-spewing dragon met eyes.

“Shriek? No,” I scolded. “What are you doing?” I began to panic as the Skrill’s mouth started to glow, readying a bolt of lightning. That would’ve been our cue to back off, but instead, Shriek took that as a chance to get closer. I could feel something rumbling in her throat, a strange sensation we’d never dealt with before. “Shriek, no!”

Right as the Skrill released the electricity brewing inside, Shriek opened her mouth, releasing a ball of blue fire that collided with our enemy’s strike. The force of the impact knocked the both of us back, and without enough time to react, my hands slipped off the saddle, sending my plummeting toward the ground without a way to save myself. Shriek was still disoriented, and appeared weak after that surprise attack she unleashed, and the others were still dealing with the A-Team.

Just when I’d closed my eyes, hoping to at least reduce some of my panic, I felt a body hit me with intense force, and arms wrapped around me, breaking my fall as the two of us hit the dirt and slid until we hit a cart. My eyes remained clamped shut for another moment, and when I realized we hadn’t died, I slowly opened them, revealing a very concerned Hiccup beneath me, the wings of Dragonfly Two extended out.

“I have never been so happy to see these,” I laughed, reaching for one of the pieces of red cloth and holding it between my fingers. “Thank you for the save.” I pushed myself to my feet, then extended a hand down to help him up, right as Stoick and Skullcrusher landed in front of the two of us.

“Where in the name of Thor did those wings come from?” he questioned, staring at them with the same frustration that I normally did.

“Wings?” Hiccup held the things up, acting like he’d forgotten they existed. “Oh, yes. Uh, I’ll tell you later.”

Both of us got distracted when Shriek lumbered out from behind a set of houses, Toothless by her side. An intense relief overtook me, and I rushed over to her, pulling her into a hug before checking her for any injuries. Thankfully, it didn’t appear she’d even ended up with a burn or scratch.

“Oh, I am sorry about that, girl,” I gasped.

“Interesting strategy, going nose to nose with a Skrill.” Stoick probably assumed that was intentional, given the battles he’d seen me fight in the past.

“Yeah, that wasn’t _my_ strategy,” I admitted, scratching under Shriek’s chin. Hiccup made his way back over to me, pulling me close against his side again.

We hadn’t actually had that conversation about moving past everything from before and just going back to the way things were, but I think the way we were acting spoke volumes. Still, there were some things that hadn’t been said in a long while.

“Snotlout, is he okay?” Astrid’s question drew my attention over to Snotlout, who had his dad’s arm slung over his shoulders.

“It’s my dad.” Something about his chuckle sounded nervous. “He bludgeons his own head for sport. Of course he’s fine.” Spitelout’s attempts at speaking just turned into blabbering and strange gasps, completely incomprehensible. “Like I said, he’s fine. Except for that blast of lightning he took to the head.” Spitelout gasped and wildly gesticulated, trying to get a message across. “Aw, thanks, Dad! I’m proud of you, too.”

That situation was sort of like a boat crash: you wanted to look away, and yet, you couldn’t. Thankfully, Fishlegs was able to provide a distraction.

“Well, all the huts seem to be in fairly good condition,” he observed. Astrid’s facial expression, however, indicated otherwise.

“All except for one.”

I gasped as I directed my attention toward the familiar hut at the top of the hill, not littered with scorch marks and smoldering boards of wood. The place I’d spent quite a few days of my latter teenage years, some of which were _apparently_ adult years, was likely fine on the inside, but seeing the skin of it was enough to completely jar me.

“My house!” Stoick cried, blinking at the building in disbelief.

“Hey, Chief, is that charred look in this year?” I couldn’t tell if Ruffnut was trying to make him feel better, or if she just really was that oblivious.

“I actually happen to think it’s _tr_ _ès chic_ , Chief. I’m thinking of doing it to our hut back on the Edge.”

“Weird that Stoick’s hut was the only one the Skrill attacked.” I tried to wrap my head around all of this, considering how quickly everything happened, but once I did, the pieces started to form a very specific picture.

“Huh.” Fishlegs tapped his chin with his fingers, brewing a conclusion. “That could explain why the Skrill went to Outcast Island and then here.”

“Not to mention, Reign spent a lot of time at Stoick’s.”

That sealed it for me.

“It’s not randomly attacking.” I felt my stomach’s contents jolt. “It’s looking for me and Shriek.”

“And Outcast Island was the last place it saw you guys before…”

“Before we led it into the crevasse and sealed it inside.”

“He’s mad at you,” Snotlout taunted, rubbing it in my face.

“Hey, come on—“ I put a hand out in front of Hiccup, cutting him off.

“No, Snotlout’s right. It _is_ mad. And it’s looking for revenge for trapping it back in that glacier.”

When we did that, I hadn’t really thought of the consequence of sealing the Skrill in ice. After all, it had held the beast for generations, put to rest at some point in Berserker history (my money was on when my father decided to make peace with Berk) and never meant to be touched again. When it broke free, that was the fault of a person, or rather three people, and not the dragon itself. I didn’t think it was capable of breaking itself free, but this exact scenario proved me so very wrong.

“What choice did we have?” Astrid asked. “It was either that or let Dagur have it.”

“Why don’t you explain that to the Skrill?” I scoffed.

Shriek lifted her nose in the air, sniffing for a threat we couldn’t see. Almost immediately, she crouched down, growling at the darkening clouds above us.

“Hey. Relax, girl,” I cooed, attempting to soothe her. “We’ve dealt with the Skrill before, we’ll deal with it again.”

“Is it just me, or is Snotlout’s dad acting a little more violent and deranged than usual?”

When I turned my attention to Spitelout, he was waving his axe around, swinging at some invisible target. I assumed whatever he saw in his head he was winning against, just because of his nature, but it felt like he was trying to mime something to the group… or, maybe, that lightning bolt did a little more damage than we presumed, and his brain was now complete mush, rather than just a little fried.

“Looks like the Skrill isn’t the only one out for revenge,” Snotlout laughed, watching his dad with admiration. “Fear not, dear father. You will be avenged. We Jorgensons will have our pound of Skrill flesh. I will make sure of it.”

Everyone just blinked at Snotlout for a while, trying to get a hold on whether or not that had actually just come out of our fellow Dragon Rider’s mouth.

Shaking her head, Astrid was the first of us to move on from that disastrous display.

“Clearly, the Skrill is coming back to Berk for you and Shriek, and we need to be ready.” I was already mounting up on my dragon, preparing for the next fight ahead.

“We’re not waiting for it, Astrid,” I snapped, maybe a bit harsh for her suggestion. “I have to take the fight to the Skrill, otherwise we’re putting the entire archipelago at risk.”

“What?” I let out an exasperated sigh, turning my dragon around to face Hiccup. “Reign, you can’t take him on alone. The Skrill is a powerful and aggressive dragon. If something went wrong—“

“Trust me, Hiccup. I know. But I don’t have much of a choice.”

With that, I rode Shriek to the newly renovated Hofferson house, where I snatched up a few of my things, then brought the two of us to the old arena, where I started to get her ready for the long flight ahead. About halfway through my packing and meticulous checking, the rest of the group landed their dragons around me, and Hiccup approached, slowly and cautiously.

“You’re sure this is the way you want to play it?” I know he was just concerned, but it felt like he was trying to get in my way—something I did _not_ take lightly.

“It’s me and Shriek it wants. It’s me and Shriek it’s gonna get,” I stated bluntly, unwilling to fight with him on this. There were battles I knew to stand down from, but this wasn’t going to be one of them.

“But don’t you think it would be better if we were there?” His voice broke a little, growing more worried by the second. “It doesn’t stand a chance against all of us.”

“And it knows that,” I tried to keep my composure when I turned to look at him, “which is why I don’t think it’ll show up unless it knows it’s just me and Shriek.”

“I’m just really not sure about—“

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward, placing my hands against Hiccup’s cheeks; whatever had been broken was mended, and the cracks no longer showed. His skin felt soft and warm beneath mine, serving as a source of comfort before I dove straight into the deadly unknown.

“Hiccup.” His eyes lit up a little when I murmured his name. “I can do this. I promise you I can. You saw me the last time we faced that Skrill—I was able to actually train it and get it to work with us. I know it’s restless now, but there’s a chance I may be able to do that again. And, if not, I know Shriek and I can lead it to that glacier no problem.” He reached up and took my hands, squeezing them lightly before I moved them to rest my arms around his neck. “Under any other circumstance, of course I would take you and Toothless with me immediately. But I have to do this alone.” I swallowed, almost afraid of the next think I was about to say… given the response it elicited last time. “I love you.”

He remained silent for a moment, processing completely what I had spoken to him, but once it had run through him fully, he leaned closer and pressed his lips against mine, savoring in the first time we’d kissed it what felt like eternities. I wanted nothing more than to linger there forever, just forget the mission and stay with Hiccup, but that just wouldn’t be possible.

“I love you, too.” His eyes closed as he rested his forehead against mine, then he laughed. “And I _really_ wish everyone wasn’t watching us right now.”

Embarrassed, I peered past him, catching the gazes of the group, who were, in fact, staring at us and smiling.

“Yup. Gotta agree with you on that one.” I pressed a kiss on his cheek, then turned back to Shriek, who was nearly ready.

“Well, you heard her,” Hiccup called to the rest of the group. “Let’s saddle up.” Spitelout began to babble and gasp again, leaning toward Snotlout like he expected him to understand.

“What’s that, Dad?” He made his words loud and dramatic, making sure the whole group heard him. “You want to stay behind because you have total confidence that I will get your revenge for you? Ha! I respect that—“ Before Snotlout could get another lie in, Spitelout hopped on the back of Hookfang’s saddle. “Oh, you changed your mind? You want to see me avenge you. Oh. Can’t say I blame you.”

Finally, everyone was ready, and, having had enough of Snotlout’s dramatics, we all mounted up on our dragons and took off, trusting that Snotlout and his father would catch up eventually. I just needed to stay here, but I wanted to make sure the group actually left.

“Okay, guys, we’ll see you soon.” I made sure to meet eyes with Hiccup for just a second longer than the others. “The Skrill will be coming back to Berk as soon as he knows we’re alone.”

The rest of the group nodded to me, and I watched as they disappeared over the horizon, solidifying that I really was doing this on my own. For a second, my confidence wavered, questioning my abilities, but I had to snap myself out of it, otherwise my chances of success would severely dwindle.

“All right, girl. Head in the game.”

I reached down to pat her head, then the two of us soared up above the cloud cover, using it as a way to hide until this thing decided to show itself. I thought, for a moment, that the Skrill would just appear the moment we got up there, ready to pick a fight, but after quite some time, everything remained quiet and calm, severely increasing my unease.

“He’s around here somewhere,” I muttered, my eyes frantically bouncing around. “Let’s see if we can’t get his attention.”

Though Shriek didn’t have any sort of echolocation like Toothless, her sonic boom was loud enough to summon forth any dragon within a far earshot; not to mention, it hit just the right frequency to cause little dragons to flee immediately, and bigger ones to want to come and pick a fight, meaning we were in luck. But, even after a couple roars, there was still no movement anywhere around us.

“I can’t see him. Do you, girl?” She snorted and shook her head, causing me to turn her back around and start to head downwards.

Right as I made that decision, bolts of lightning shot down in time with violent rumbles of thunder, nearly knocking me off Shriek again. The frequency of the strikes above created a light inside the clouds, just barely revealing the outline of the Skrill. He roared at us, appearing to almost be taunting the two of us, then he pushed himself out from the clouds fully, spreading his wings and leering at us.

“Okay, Shriek, now!”

Right as the Skrill fired a large strike of lightning from its mouth, Shriek dove straight downward, rocketing until she nearly hit the water, at which point she made a sharp turn and leveled out her body. The Skrill maintained a steady speed behind us, the distance between dangerously close.

“Nice move, girl.” I pat the top of her head, reminding her of how well she was doing. “Now, keep him close but not too close.” Shriek and I maneuvered back and forth, dodging whatever columns of lightning came straight down, trying our best not to get singed. “Come on, just a little longer.”

All I could do was hope that the gang had opened a wide enough hole in the glacier to get the Skrill through effortlessly as we soared around sea stacks. The temperature was beginning to drop, meaning we were getting close to that dreaded ice formation, and once it appeared over the horizon, I knew we were home free. I could just barely make out the outlines of my friends moving around the mouth of a cave they’d created, large enough to fit the Skrill through.

“Shriek, aim for the tunnel!”

The moment we got close enough, the others darted out of the way, leaving room for Shriek and I to get through without the Skrill knowing anyone else was there. Bracing myself, I leaned forward on my dragon, and the two of us shot through into the cold darkness, immediately sending a bone-shattering shiver through my body. It was all worth it, thought, to trap the Skrill…

…except, when I turned around, the Skrill wasn’t following. I couldn’t even spot it within the cave, meaning it never came in. Somehow, it figured us out.

“Well, this isn’t good.”

Panicked, I yanked on Shriek’s saddle to turn her back around, but right as I spotted the light of the entrance of the cave, something struck the mouth, sending sheets of ice crashing down to seal us in. The temperature dropped out of nowhere, causing me to slowly begin to crumple up, shutting down sooner than usual due to the lack of coldweather gear. I could hear Shriek roaring and slamming herself against the ice, trying to break it down, and right as the world was becoming fuzzy and the sounds distant, there was an explosion of light, and I was being lifted into the air.

I could tell Shriek was firing those fire balls I had absolutely no clue about at the Skrill, and I wanted to shout something at it, but I still felt too weak to shout. At least I was able to sit up straight again after Shriek made a couple of circles, which proved to be good when the Skrill started to shoot at us again, forcing us to turn around quickly and head off, a little disoriented.

“Okay, new plan,” I panted, finally pulling myself back together. “I don’t have one yet. Uh, for now, we just need to find safe cover. And I know exactly where that is. Shriek, head north.”

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to turn around, but it was all I could think of at the moment. The fog, in particular, would serve as a great way to get the upper hand on the Skrill. Sure, the crashed and sunk ships never stopped being unsettling, but they, too, could help.

Right as I reached the ship graveyard, the Skrill fired a bolt of lightning a little too close, hitting Shriek’s back and causing her to roar in pain. She began to falter and list back and forth, barely making it to the dock of the nearest ship. The moment her little legs touched down, I jumped off and ran to look her in the eyes, stroking her head to help ease the pain.

“You’re gonna be okay, girl,” I whispered, trying my best to smile at her and hide my fear. “I’m sorry I can’t do more. You just have to work through it. But, you’re one of the strongest dragons I know, so you can do this.” Momentarily, I glanced up at the sky, making sure there were no other signs of life. “Well, at least we lost the Skrill.”

As if he heard me, four large columns of lightning came down from the clouds, each one nearly hitting my feet right before I jumped backwards, pushing Shriek with my body weight so that she wouldn’t get struck again.

“He’s trying to flush us out.” Frantic, I turned and looked down at her. “Are you feeling up to flying again?” Although Shriek’s grumble was weak, she pushed herself up onto her feet fairly easily, meaning she at least could fly. “But, how are we going to take out that Skrill?”

And that’s when quite possibly the worst idea I’d ever had popped into my head. Not only was it risky, but there was a low chance of it actually working, and a much higher probability that Shriek and I would get injured in the process—and I’d have to come face to face with some of the people I hated the most… but, sadly, it was all I had at the moment.

“Then again, maybe—maybe _we_ don’t have to. I bet those Dragon Hunters would love to see this guy in action.”

I just barely managed to deflect a blast of lightning as the Skrill broke back down through the clouds.

“Come on, girl. Let’s get that Skrill to follow us.”

Dodging in and out of lightning and occasional dive bombs from the Skrill, Shriek and I started to head out past the ship graveyard, searching for any sort of Dragon Hunter ship. Every now and then, we’d go back down beneath the layer of clouds, taking a peek before I shot straight back up. We’d been flying to the north for quite a while, when finally, I dipped down and caught sight of a distinct sail on a ship. For the first time in my life, I was relieved to find the Dragon Hunters.

Carefully as we could, Shriek and I soared close to the water, and I shifted so I could lay down on her back, ensuring that we’d be as flat as possible.

“All right, just stay low and they won’t see us, girl,” I whispered. “Not with that light show going on up there.”

I remained down on my dragon until we got in close to the big ship, where I could hear shouting and the distinct voice of my brother up above. It appeared they’d noticed the Skrill, which meant things were going according to plan so far. Now, I just needed to make sure they couldn’t use their nets and bolas. Folding my legs up over my head, I sat up again and steered Shriek severely to my left, ramming our bodies against the wood, which caused the whole boat to jostle.

Once we got our attack in, Shriek and I booked it as high as we could get, darting back and forth to avoid the dragon root arrows the Hunters tried to hit us with. Above all the noise, my brother’s cackled seeped upwards, causing my eyes to roll back and my shoulders to tense. Despite the things I’d learned from Heather recently, he’d still been terrorizing my friends and I for the last three years.

With that signature bravery, the Skrill began to swoop above the Dragon Hunters, attempting to shock them as the loosed seemingly endless waves of arrows up in its direction. Somewhere around the third or fourth pass, one of the projectiles managed to hit the Skrill’s tail, causing it to roar in pain and plummet toward the water, rendering it unable to fire.”

“Okay, sounds like the Hunters fell for it. Now, let’s get him out of the water before they get there.”

The wind slapped at my face and made my hair fly in every which direction, occasionally blocking my eyes, but I didn’t care. Those were the least of my problems at the moment, and honestly, on all occasions.

“Come on, girl,” I urged, pulling out my sword from its sheath. “If my brother gets that dragon, he’ll be impossible to deal with… not that he’s a lot of fun anyway.”

The Hunters noticed the two of us once we were in range, but I didn’t care. I just held my sword out in my left hand, ready to sever the rope attached to the net they’d trapped the prized dragon in, practically tasting the success as I got within arms’ reach.

Then, a sudden pain struck my arm, causing me to cry out and nearly drop the sword that had been made for me. Without me aiding her, Shriek went back up toward the clouds, and I glanced down at my shoulder, spotting an arrow sticking out of it. The pain pulsated, but I knew it would be far worse if I didn’t get this thing out soon.

“Stay away from my Skrill, Reign!” Dagur threatened. “You’re not getting him this time!”

The Edge… the Edge was close to here. I was sure of it. I could go there and get this arrow out of my shoulder, then get back out there and chase after the Dragon Hunters. My brother could say whatever he wanted, but there was no way I would let him keep that Skrill for too long.

I managed to block out the pain for the remainder of the flight, but it started to pulsate and overwhelm my brain as I touched down on the pavilion of the dragon stables. I’d sort of hoped that it would just be Shriek and I, but I wasn’t going to be afforded that luxury. Upon spotting the thing sticking out of me, Hiccup rushed to me, his eyes filled with a mixture of horror and concern.

“What happened?” His words came out slightly hyperventilated. “Where have you been?”

“It’s a— _aah!_ ” I cried out as Hiccup gently touched the end of the arrow. “Why would you do that?”

“Well, we have to get it out of there somehow,” he argued.

“I was with the Dragon Hunters.”

The air around me fell completely silent, before I was thrown off my dragon with sudden force, digging the arrow deeper into me.

“Got you, traitor!” I heard Tuffnut scream as I tried my best to breathe through the pain.

“Guys, stop!” I begged, tears welling up in my eyes. “You’re making it worse.”

Whoever decided it was a good idea to jump on me finally peeled themselves off, leaving me to Astrid and Hiccup. The three of us understood this thing needed to come out _now_. With a disturbing amount of coordination, Hiccup took my hands, allowing me to squeeze them as Astrid pushed the arrow through and pulled it out the other side. I screamed and nearly collapsed once it was over, but at least I wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore. Fishlegs went to go get some bandages, and once the wound was wrapped up, I finally had enough strength to explain.

“I… may or may not have accidentally given the Dragon Hunters the Skrill.” I figured, maybe, my friends would hold back, given what I’d just been through, but Thor, was I wrong.

“You let the Dragon Hunters capture the Skrill?” Astrid gasped, staring at me like I had two heads.

“That wasn’t the plan,” I sighed, using Hiccup to lean my weight against. The wound still pulsated every now and then, each time bringing a flash of pain with it. “They were supposed to take it down and then we would swoop in and grab it away. But…”

“They got to it first.” Thankfully, it seemed like Fishlegs was angry at the Dragon Hunters and not me.

“So, Dagur has the Skrill again?” Snotlout shook his head at me. “Great! Now he’s just gonna chain that thing up like a puppet and take him on a ‘Greatest Hits’ attack run of the archipelago!” Spitelout babbled again, shaking his hands down near his waist. “I agree, Dad. I’m very disappointed in Reign, too.”

“They had some sort of new net-shooting catapult,” I recalled, vaguely able to bring up details through the pain.

“Net-shooting catapult. You know, no one ever plans for the intangibles.” Ruff’s rambling wasn’t helping with any aspect of this.

“But, Reign, it’s just—“

“Confusing.” Tuffnut placed a hand on Fishlegs’ shoulder, cutting him off. “I know, that I, for one, am confused.”

“Yet intrigued.”

“Ah, yes. Moral ambiguity. Something else you can never see coming. Yep, catapult nets and moral ambiguity.” My eyes involuntarily rolled all the way back into my skull.

“Look, there’s really no moral ambiguity here,” I groaned. “I messed up. I really messed up. And I’m not sure how to fix it.” The twins let out overdramatic gasps, shriveling away from me upon that admission.

“Oh, what now?”

“We’ve just never heard you say that before.” I definitely had said things along those lines in the past.

“You and Hiccup always know how to fix it.”

“Yeah, well, guess what? I’m not perfect.”

“What? No. What? Whose painting am I going to have above my bed?” The blurred line between the twins being serious and sarcastic was getting more concerning by the minute.

I relaxed slightly as Hiccup turned me to look up at him.

“First of all, ew.” He glared at the twins a moment longer, then focused back on me, a soft smile taking over his features. “Second, everything you did, you did to protect that dragon and to protect all of us. Now, the question isn’t how you fix it, it’s how we all fix it. As a team.”

I sighed happily, leaning my head against his chest as the rest of the group gathered around us. I’d gotten so used to saying things like that to him, I’d never really taken the time to consider just how impactful the words could be. Just hearing the reassurance that we could undo what had been done made me feel a little stronger, and just a twinge more hopeful than I had been when I landed.

“My dad says we’re letting you off too easy, but we’re still in.” I shot Snotlout a warning glance, silencing him.

“Now, we just have to figure out a way to find the Hunters,” Astrid chimed in, smiling confidently at me.

“Reign, which way was that storm heading?” Fishlegs inquired.

“East,” I answered shortly.

“Then they will be going west. That way, the Skrill can’t harness the lightning and attack them,” he concluded.

“Good thinking, Fishlegs. There’s a group of islands just west of where we were. Lots of secluded beaches and coves to hide in. That’s our best bet.”

With a plan settled in, all of us got our dragons ready. I’d made it pretty clear that I wanted to deal with Dagur and the Skrill myself, something the others thankfully agreed to. Just before we took off for the long flight, Hiccup leaned down and kissed my injured shoulder, taking care to avoid the blood already seeping through the bandage. Thankfully, my dominant arm wasn’t the one that got shot, meaning that in the very likely event I had to use my sword, I’d be just fine.

By the time we reached the chain of islands, the sun had completely disappeared from the sky, which definitely would serve as helpful when we tried to get in close to the Hunters. Our group collectively decided Fishlegs should go in to scout, since Meatlug was the only dragon among us immune to dragon root, and in the meantime, the rest of us circled around the land masses up in the clouds, making sure we were just covered enough so that we wouldn’t be spotted, even with a spyglass.

Once we spotted Fishlegs coming back up, without arrows or other projectiles being fired at him, Hiccup and I swooped down on our dragons and met up with him.

“I think I found them,” he informed us. “There’s a campfire and a lot of singing in really deep voices around the other side of the island.” I snickered.

“Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see my brother singing.” Once I had my moment, I cleared my throat and faced the rest of the group. “Let’s go check it out, gang.”

The six of us followed Fishlegs around the island, taking our dragons up to a line of bushes and crouching below it. Sure enough, there sat three Hunters around a fire, laughing boisterously and encouraging others to tell sexist jokes. The mere thought of that was enough for me to want to jump out of the bushes and knock all of them unconscious, but I decided against it for the sake of a coordinated attack.

“Okay, we’ll quietly make our way along the tree line over to those cages.” I pointed toward the group of green cages not far away from us, all covered in tarps. “That must be where they’re holding the Skrill.” I jumped back slightly as Spitelout shot up, swinging his axe dangerously close to my face.

“My dad says that’s a terrible plan,” Snotlout translated, “and that we should just attack.” A split second after he said that, the words caught up with him, and his eyes widened. “Wait, what?”

Before any of us could stop him, Spitelout broke out from behind the line of bushes, shouting and waving his axe around in the air, startling the Dragon Hunters.

“Okay, change of plans,” I sighed, my hand slapping against my forehead. “We’ll use Spitelout as a distraction. Snotlout, you and your dad keep the Hunters busy while the rest of us go get the Skrill.”

Snotlout and Hookfang flew in lower to the ground, allowing the rest of us to slip by overhead. Bursts of Nightmare flames and confused shouting served as the background as the rest of us darted through the maze of cages, trying to find any sign that one of them held the Skrill. Thankfully, that sign came in the form of a cage covered in white tarp, just barely in the ocean. Still, it was enough to prevent it from channeling the lightning.

“That’s gotta be the right cage,” I whispered back to the others. “It’s the only one submerged in the water.”

As quietly as possible, I slid off Shriek’s back and inched closer to the cage, swallowing down the little bit of fear that slunk through my veins. I just kept reminding myself that this thing and I had a sort of bond, even if the hatred it felt for Shriek and I was more prevalent. All I had to do was get to him and train him, even if it was momentarily, like before. I just needed enough leeway to get him out of the cage and back to the glacier.

In one swift move, I pulled the tarp down from over the cage, bringing me face to face with a snarling Skrill. His yellow eyes stared into mine, both of us daring the other to flinch first. He roared and snapped at me, but I remained unmoving and calm, putting my hands out in front of me.

“I know, I know,” I whispered, trying to keep my tone soothing. “You can’t fire while you’re in the water. But don’t worry. We’re here to help.”

Slowly, I crept forward, lowering one of my hands and slightly averting my gaze; I’d seen Hiccup do this a thousand times before. How hard could it be?

Very difficult, apparently. Especially with a Skrill that had it out for me. The moment my hand got close enough to his nuzzle, the Skrill lunged out and snapped his jaws shut, attempting to bite my hand off. Startled, I stumbled backwards a bit, prompting Shriek to jump up behind me and screech at the dragon, extending her wings out.

“No, no, Shriek. I’m okay, girl.”

Not one to back down easily, I took my stance in front of him again, remaining undeterred when he roared at me again.

“All right, pal, let’s just keep it down or they’ll hear us.”

“Oh, it’s too late for that.”

My heart hammered against my ribcage as I whipped around, staring down Ryker and my brother as the other Dragon Hunters rushed for my friends, holding their arms behind their backs. Without thinking, I pulled my sword from its sheath, preparing for whatever they wanted to throw at me.

“Told you she’d come back for my Skrill,” Dagur smirked, pushing down Ryker’s sword so he could approach me. “How could you, sister? We’ve barely had time to get reacquainted.” I felt a growl rip through my throat as Dagur leaned against the cage, smirking at the helpless and scared dragon. “It’s all right, baby. This is all still so new.”

“Never mind that, Dagur,” Ryker laughed, pointing at the dragons trapped under Hunter nets. “Look at all these new dragons your sister brought us. Cage ‘em up.”

The moment I felt my brother’s hand on me, I shoved my elbow backwards, hitting him in his chest and freezing him for a moment. I took that as my chance, swinging at him with force. It almost looked like I was going to best Dagur, when all of a sudden, he reached out and rammed his fist against my bandaged wound, sending a pain so intense through me that I fell to the ground.

Strangely, I thought I heard Dagur mutter a ‘sorry’ as I collapsed.

Hiccup quickly rushed to me, helping me to my feet and taking my hand, allowing me to squeeze it until the pain passed. Once the haze of the moment faded away, I got a chance to look around, and I noticed the Skrill had begun to bang its head against the cage and roar in my brother’s direction.

“Hmm…”

“What are you thinking?” he whispered, trying not to give us away.

“That the enemy of my enemy—“

“Might kill us all?” I chuckled a little, not used to hearing this much pessimism from him.

“Well, yes,” I shrugged. “But he also might help us.”

Breaking free from his grip, I lunged forward and rolled against the sand, avoiding the swing of a Dragon Hunter before I swept my leg out to knock him over. Another jumped for me, but I got my sword out and used the blunt end to knock him away, then whipped out my shield and deflected a couple arrows, leaving me a straight shot to the Skrill.

“Shriek! The cage!”

Shriek shook her body once, breaking the bonds the Hunters had used, and lept over to the back of the Skrill’s cage, helping me push it over until it was officially out of the water. The moment it hit the sand, I ran backwards, keeping myself out of range. The Skrill spread its wings, causing a bolt of lightning to flash over the cage, illuminating the dragon’s body again. Smirking, I stood up in front of the Skrill’s cage as it jumped up on top.

I felt a sense of satisfaction as Dagur’s jaw dropped.

“Now, come on, brother,” I laughed. “You really should’ve seen this coming. It’s not like we haven’t been here before.”

With that, I pointed forward—just like I had last time. The Skrill opened its mouth wide, firing lightning only at the Hunters, making sure my friends were unharmed. However, in my cockiness, I missed the very people I’d been aiming for, allowing Ryker enough time to ready a dragon root arrow and aim it at the Skrill. When it tried to fly away, its tail got stuck in the bars, leaving it exposed and trapped in the line of fire.

“No!” Without thinking, I stepped up in front of the bow, not caring that it would be the second time I’d been shot that day.

I closed my eyes, fully expecting the thing to go through my chest, when I heard Shriek’s cry of pain, starling me. Once I looked out again, I saw my poor dragon collapsed in front of me, mewling in pain.

“Shriek!”

That provided the Skrill enough time to break itself free, channeling the lightning through its body completely. It leered down at all of us, making its target unclear, but when it swooped, I fully expected it to come straight for Shriek and I. Bracing myself, I leaned down over my dragon, but the shock never came, instead knocking down every single one of the Hunters.

It had fought to protect us…

Right as the Skrill started to get out of control, Spitelout picked up a bow and fired a dragon root arrow at the beast, sending him into a sleepy haze that would allow us to get him out of there. Feeling victorious, the Viking grunted and thrust his axe in the air.

“He’s saying ‘Spitelout, Spitelout, oy, oy, oy.’” Snotlout facepalmed at his father.

Astrid, the twins, and Fishlegs got to work wrapping the Skrill up in a net, and once he was secured, all of us took off for the glacier, ready to seal him away and be done with all of this.

At first, I couldn’t be happier we were putting him back where he belonged. There was just too much of a risk with Dagur out there, and I didn’t want to put any more islands in the position of being destroyed just because Shriek and I had been there at one point.

But, as I watched Fishlegs and Astrid lower the thing into the crevasse, something twinged in my heart. He opened his eyes and looked to me, still half asleep, but clearly resigned to himself.

“Wait!” I sighed, slightly in disbelief that I was doing this. “We can’t do this.”

“Sure we can,” Snotlout shrugged. “We drop him in, and then, boom, we seal it closed.” I shook my head,

“What I mean is, we shouldn’t do this.” Hiccup linked his hands with mine as he rested his head against my shoulder.

“Reign, this thing hunted you and Shriek. It wanted to kill you.” I smiled a little at him.

“But it didn’t,” I shrugged. “It saved us. And it risked its own life doing this.” Gently, I removed one of my hands from his and reached it out toward the Skrill. “If we do this, we’re no better than the Dragon Hunters. We’re just using a different cage. And he doesn’t deserve that.”

Even if everyone didn’t agree, it appeared Hiccup and Astrid did, at the very least. Hiccup released me completely, and Astrid passed me her axe, allowing me to easily cut through the ropes binding the net closed. Fishlegs carefully lowered it down onto the ice, and with one swing, I cut the thing open, allowing the Skrill to take steps and fly again.

This time, the Skrill appeared much more docile, bowing his head toward Shriek and I. I smiled at the dragon and bowed my head, returning the respect to him.

Now that he was free, the Skrill spread his wings one last time, bringing down a bolt of lightning over Spitelout before taking off for the clouds. The flashes of light up above got farther and farther away, until finally, they disappeared from our view.

“So, you knew he wouldn’t turn on you if you let him go, huh?” Hiccup asked, attaching himself to me again as I shivered.

“Yeah… why not?” I chuckled nervously. I set the axe back on the ground, allowing Astrid to come pick it up.

“Well, my dad says he’s very proud of us, especially me. His favorite son.”

“I didn’t say that.” I could see the moment Snotlout’s brain stopped working as his father spoke.

“Dad, you got your voice back. That’s great.”

“Is it? We’ll see about that. We have a lot to talk about, boy-o.”

I rolled my eyes, letting the Lout family work out their issues as I turned around to look up at Hiccup.

“That’s the second time you’ve tamed a Skrill,” he marveled. “That’s amazing.” I shrugged my shoulders, trying to remain cool about it.

“I’m extremely convinced it runs in the family.” He ran a hand through my hair, pressing a kiss against my forehead.

“Despite a few things, I’m learning your family’s pretty phenomenal. I can’t wait to be part of it one day.”

I froze for a second, caught off-guard, then jumped forward and kissed him, smiling and letting it linger. For once, I didn’t care that our friends were watching.

“Your family’s pretty amazing, too,” I gushed. “I’ll be proud to call myself a Haddock.”

It felt good to be back where we started from.


	26. Maces and Talons, Pt. 1 (Hiccup)

There’s nothing like a good old Dragon Hunter raid to close out the day.

When Heather tipped Reign off to a dragon transport happening soon, we made sure we were ready: rigorous training, improvements to dragon armor, and getting a head-start to make sure we wouldn’t miss them. So far, every attack proved to be predictable, and everyone on our team was performing beautifully.

Toothless and I swerved back and forth to dodge another wave of arrows, then when they launched the boulders from catapults- as we’d expected- Meatlug and Fishlegs dove forward; the dragon effortlessly caught the projectiles in her mouth and chewed them up, rendering another one of their weapons useless. Just for good measure, Astrid and Stormfly used her magnesium blast to make sure the catapults slowly melted and their levers burned up, completely dismantling the things.

Right on cue, the next set of dragon root arrows was loosed, prompting Toothless, Hookfang, and Shriek to flip on their sides, using their dragon armor to deflect the hits and prevent any of the other dragons from getting struck.

We’d finally opened up enough of a window to get below deck. I waited for Reign to catch up, then the two of us made a break for the opening, shooting down toward the cages below. Toothless’ high leaps allowed me to reach the chains that swung the doors open, then Reign and Shriek led them out to freedom.

Once the wild dragons were out of range, Reign yanked on Shriek’s saddle, forcing her to make a harsh turn toward Heather and Windshear, who had been circling the entire time. I tried my best to make it seem like I wasn’t watching as the two of them stared at each other, pretending to be locked in bitter contempt before Shriek let out a weak boom, just enough to disorient Windshear, but not injure her.

That just about wrapped up everything we needed to do, so we regrouped and headed back toward the Edge, bustling and bubbling with a sense of accomplishment… except for Reign, who remained uncharacteristically silent.

By the time we got back, the sun was falling down behind the horizon line. Most of the group decided to call it a night, leaving Snotlout and Tuffnut, who were babbling about something of no interest to those not involved, and Reign and I. Right as I’d started to take apart Toothless’ armor, she spat out what had been bothering her.

“We need to pull Heather out. If I hadn’t reacted, her cover would have been blown.”

I shook my head as I yanked on the chest piece, finally freeing my dragon.

“I wanted her out weeks ago, but somebody talked me into—“

“You really want to pull on that threat again?” Reign’s eyebrow arched up against her forehead as her hands cemented themselves against her hips, daring me to challenge her on this. “And I know I did. But, things were different then.”

“How?” One of her hands ran through the mop of hair on her head, ruffling it.

“It’s way too dangerous.”

“It’s always been too dangerous,” I argued.

“This has gotten crazy, Hiccup. And she hasn’t even met this Viggo character.” I tried to push down the frustration that she wasn’t seeing the positive in this.

“Exactly. Viggo Grimborn leads the Dragon Hunters. If we can take him down, the whole Dragon Hunter army will be without a leader and they will collapse.”

Reign opened her mouth to make another point, but found herself interrupted by Snotlout and Tuffnut’s shouting.

“You are so tough and nutty,” Snotlout laughed.

“You are so lout and snotty.” That one didn’t even come close to making sense… not that I expected anything less from Tuffnut.

It only got weirder as the pair began to tickle each other.

“If something happens to Heather—“

“Nothing is going to happen to her.” I stepped forward, taking her arms and giving them a reassuring squeeze. “She’s way too smart for that. Windshear would get her out. Besides, what do you think she would do if we tried to pull her out of there?” Reign just sighed, her eyes falling to her feet. “Exactly. She’d never go for it. You have to remember that.”

Snotlout and Tuffnut’s shouting and horsing around pushed Reign’s frustration past its boiling point, causing her fists to ball up.

“Will you two please take it somewhere else?” she groaned. “I can’t hear myself think!”

Thankfully, the usually reluctant members of our team left the stables, leaving the two of us in a much needed silence. For a long while, I held her against my chest, trying my best to calm the distress in her mind. I couldn’t understand the sort of protectiveness that came with having a younger sibling, but I did fear for Heather’s safety in certain moments.

It wasn’t until it was nearly dark outside that I dared to move.

“Tell you what.” Reign glanced up at me. “We still have a little while until we have to meet up with Heather again. Why don’t we eat and then relax for a while? I think we’ve earned it for now.”

The smile that stretched onto Reign’s face made my stomach do a flip.

“That sounds perfect.”

Once the cover of night completely arrived, Reign and I hopped on our dragons and headed for the designated meeting spot with Heather. Normally, it was just Reign who flew out to meet her, but I needed something from Heather, so I managed to convince her to let me tag along.

Heather and Windshear were already waiting for us by the time we reached the sea stack, which pushed a relieved sigh through Reign’s lips.

“You sure you weren’t followed?” Reign asked once we landed and dismounted.

“Positive.”

With that affirmation, Reign pulled Heather into a tight hug, savoring the rare moment when she could be with her sister and not have to pretend to despise her.

After they had their moment, Heather moved toward her saddle bad and removed a rolled sheet of parchment.

“Viggo suspects Ryker and Dagur as potential information leaks,” she informed us. “He asked me to go with him to capture the Flightmare. Just me, Windshear, and him.”

My brows furrowed, shocked by that information. Typically, the Hunters went for the more common dragon breeds. This sort of capture was pretty risky, not to mention ambitious.

“Flightmare? Why would Viggo want the Flightmare?” Heather shrugged her shoulders at my inquiry.

“Hiccup, you’re missing the point,” Heather sighed.

“He does that from time to time,” Reign chuckled, throwing her sister a smirk.

“No, I don’t,” I scoffed. The pair just rolled their eyes at me before getting back to Heather’s original point.

“It’s me, Viggo, and Windshear. The perfect time for an ambush.” Heather sounded so optimistic, but I had this strange feeling in my gut, sending a warning signal I didn’t quite understand.

“I agree, but how exactly does Viggo think the three of you are going to capture the Flightmare?”

“You haven’t met Viggo Grimborn.” Heather’s voice dropped low, almost threatening. “He is a professional Dragon Hunter.”

“Right, but you’re not going to actually let him capture it.”

“Of course not,” Heather assured us. “That’s where the ambush comes in. You guys show up, grab Viggo and we set the Flightmare back on its path.”

“Now, all we have to do is find it.” That prompted Heather to unfurl the map, showing off an island marked by a circle with a trail leading up to it.

“It follows a stream of glowing algae as its food source. Last year, I spent a lot of time tracking it, pinning down its location every couple of weeks. I know where it should be and I gave that information to Viggo.”

“Which made him trust you even more,” Reign concluded.

A reluctant smile crossed Heather’s face as she passed the map off to me.

“Listen, I better get back. What I’ve marked is the algae trail. Just follow it to the island. This is where we’ll be.”

“So will we.”

Heather and Reign turned to get on their dragons, but I still hadn’t gotten what I came for. For a moment, I thought about trying to get Heather’s attention, but there was no way I could think of doing that without making things obvious. Thankfully, Heather seemed to realize she’d forgotten something as she opened her saddle bag.

“Oh, uh, Hiccup?” she called out. “Can I see that map for a sec?”

Happily obliging, I made my way over to Heather and Windshear and unrolled the parchment, allowing her to easily hide her hands as she passed me a small canvas sack. As subtly as I could, I opened the drawstrings and removed the beautiful, tiny item inside: a golden ring, polished to shine brighter than the moonlight above our heads, with three black gems at its apex.

It was perfect for Reign.

“I found out Berserker betrothal gifts are usually rings,” Heather whispered, “so I had one forged the last time we were in the Northern Markets.”

“Thank you, Heather.” I was still in slight awe. “It’s perfect for her.” She nodded, trying her best to contain her smile so Reign wouldn’t suspect anything.

“Traditionally, you give it to your betrothed right after you propose, rather than the three moon cycles like on Berk.” Taking care not to lose the thing, I slipped it back into its pouch. “So, when do you think you’re going to do it?”

“I think once this Flightmare thing is over.” I sighed, trying my best not to think of what Reign and I had just gotten through. “I realized recently that I don’t ever want to be without her ever. And I know we’ve got this whole mess with the Dragon Hunters, but… I don’t know. I just don’t want to wait.”

Now, Heather couldn’t contain a smile.

“Well, good luck… brother.”

Our business was finally concluded, so I rolled the map back up, and when I reached Toothless, carefully slipped the ring onto the saddle bag.

“What was that about?” Reign asked as I slid up onto my dragon.

“Just her trying to make sure I understood the map,” I lied. “Your sister is oddly particular about these things.” She laughed as the two of us took off.

“Yeah, that definitely runs in the family.”

Momentarily, my mind drifted back to the object nestled safely in my bag.

I could do this.

We had to wait another night for the chase, but that gave us enough time to cement and memorize the plan. The Hunters’ attacks had become predictable the more we dealt with them, so this time, I was absolutely certain of what to do. The plan was perfectly laid out, with different possibilities accounted for, and everyone oozed a sort of excitement—not that I could blame them. The thought of capturing the leader of the Dragon Hunters himself was utterly tantalizing.

At the moment, Fishlegs was studying the map again, his eyes running over the markings excitedly.

“Whoa! Heather’s tracking and mapping skills are quite extraordinary!” he gushed. “Is there no end to that girl’s talent?”

Reign and Astrid exchanged a smug sort of look. Did they know something…?

“Can we just talk about the elephant in the sky for a second?” Tuffnut asked from the back of the group.

“No,” I dismissed quickly, not wanting to bring anything that could rattle us into the common conscience.

“Cool.” Tuffnut shrugged and decided to go forward anyway. “Why do we think Viggo wants the Flightmare so badly?”

“Maybe Viggo likes the way that algae stuff makes you glow when you rub it all over yourself,” Ruffnut suggested. While I highly doubted something that ridiculous was the reason, given everything we knew about Viggo so far, the twins actually were onto something.

“You may not actually be that far off,” I thought aloud. “He’s gotta be using its algae or its paralyzing spray for something.”

“With everything that Heather’s told us about him so far, I’m going with the latter,” Reign growled. “Which doesn’t bode well for anyone.”

“We could ask him ourselves if we were waiting for him when he gets here,” Astrid stated, a subtle urge to pick up the pace.

The island wasn’t that much further, and once we arrived, there were no signs of Dragon Hunter ships anywhere, meaning we’d managed to beat Viggo and Heather. Once all of us had landed and were off our dragons, we began to search the land for any sort of glowing, preferably from the Flightmare itself. The algae trail moved exactly along the map that Heather had drawn out for us, allowing us to follow the glow all the way downstream, until finally, we came across a glowing dragon eating from the water. I let out a breath, relieved; part of me had worried we were maybe too late, despite what our prior evidence had pointed to.

“There!” I pointed down to the dragon with one hand and prevented the group from stepping too far forward with the other. “Let’s stay together. We need to make sure Viggo doesn’t get near that dragon.”

“How will we know when Viggo’s here?”

Fishlegs’ question was met with growls and snarls from the dragons as they crouched down, taking defensive positions. When I looked up to where they were, I noticed a single ship coming closer to the island, the insignia on the sail large and bright enough to make it out perfectly.

“He already is.” We had to move much faster than initially planned, but I still had faith we could do it. “Okay, Ruff, Tuff, make sure you get enough algae—“

“—to lure the Flightmare away,” Ruff finished as she held up the canvas bag. “We know.”

“This guy never stops,” Tuff lamented as I walked away. “’Lure the Flightmare. Don’t eat the algae.’”

“Ridiculous,” Ruff scoffed. “I mean, why would we eat the algae?” For a moment, the twins thought it over, then mischievous grins spread onto their faces.

“Why wouldn’t we eat the algae?”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do about the twins once they got on Barf and Belch and took off toward the algae stream. All there was left to do was prepare for our end of this fight, especially with the clock now winding down.

“Uh, Hiccup?” The way Reign’s voice wavered concerned me greatly. “You might wanna see this.”

When I looked out in the direction she was, my heart froze in my chest: a fleet of Hunter ships was heading straight for us.

“Hiccup, you might wanna see this, too.”

Even more, attempting to corner us.

“I thought Heather and Viggo were coming alone,” Snotlout shouted.

“They were.” That’s when the horrific realization hit me. “Which probably means they’re not coming at all.”

Those of us left were forced to scramble onto our dragons suddenly as three flaming boulders came shooting right for us, lighting the grass where it landed aflame. When we got close enough to the ships, I could see Dagur on the deck of the one leading them all, glaring at us with intense, possibly unhealthy contempt; Ryker hung off the mast of another one, his sword pointed straight at us.

The arrows came flying suddenly, making us think fast to dodge. All of a sudden, nothing was predictable, even when we’d dealt with them a thousand times before. Just one little rock in the road completely rattled our entire fleet.

The only semblance of hope came in the form of the twins soaring over our heads, the Flightmare leaving a glowing trail not far behind them.

“Not the way I would have done it, but that’s one way to go,” I shrugged.

The ships began to close in on us as the sky glowed blue, pushing our group to just go straight for destroying them. It was a risky move, considering we hadn’t disarmed them, and because of that, none of us even made a dent in the things, forced back just seconds later by the hellfire of boulders and arrows.

“Hiccup, there’s too many of them,” Astrid cried, jumping out of the way as the Flightmare nearly ran her and Stormfly over.

“And the Flightmare really isn’t helping,” Fishlegs added.

“We’ll be fine as long as we stay away from its mist,” I assured them, still optimistic that we could get through this.

“Hiccup, can’t you just let it know we’re the good guys?”

“Yeah. Tell it to come in for the big win.”

At first, I brushed off the twins’ suggestion, thinking only on the surface level, but after a split second of contemplation, I realized a variant of that might actually be the key to getting us out of here with the dragon we’d come for.

“You guys are brilliant!” The amount of times I’d said that to the pair recently alarmed me slightly.

“Well, I don’t know about brilliant. But we do have a certain glow about us.” The twins laughed at their own joke. “Get it? ‘Cause of our faces.”

“And the brilliance is short-lived,” I sighed. “Follow me!”

The seven of us made a break for the ship with Dagur and Ryker, and once we were close enough, I snatched the bag of algae from the twins, pulling it open to ready the contents for the drop. Reign and Astrid took a couple others the twins had gathered up in the process, and like the boulders of the Hunters, we dropped the algae onto the deck. At first, the Hunters laughed and jeered at us, taunting our seemingly useless attack… but the moment the boisterous noise died down, the Flightmare landed on the deck and began to scurry across it, spraying anyone that dared to get in the way of its food.

“Ryker, Dagur, I’d like you to meet my friend, the Flightmare,” Reign announced with pomp and grandiose, laughing.

As the Flightmare continued to wreak havoc on the Hunters, Heather and Windshear came up from the horizon, blasting at one of the ships before she got the chance to circle around and meet up with our group.

“I’m so sorry, Hiccup,” she gasped, clearly still frightened. “Viggo. He made me…”

“I know. It’s okay, he tricked us all.” I focused my attention back on the fleet. “Where is he now?”

“Still on his ship, I think.” She pointed to one far off from all the others, completely isolated.

Right as I was about to fly for it, the Hunters were able to corner the Flightmare and throw a net over its body, confusing it just long enough to put a muzzle over its mouth. Rage swept over Heather’s face as she watched the scene unfold, realizing that the work we’d done may have been for nothing.

“Sorry, not gonna happen.” Without thinking, she dove down to the main ship, swinging her axe and throwing herself toward her brother and Ryker.

“Heather, no!” Despite the fact I knew my cries were too late, I still felt the need to call out to her. “Reign, keep trying for Heather. It’s time Viggo and I were properly introduced.”

I waited for her to acknowledge that, then pushed Toothless to make a mad dash for Viggo’s ship. I expected fire and arrows more intense than on any Dragon Hunter ship we faced, but strangely enough, the world around me remained silent, untouched by even a single voice.

Things fared no better when Toothless and I landed on the deck, once again greeted with only silence. Though I didn’t want to accept it, somewhere deep in my mind I knew Viggo had already gotten away. It wasn’t until Reign landed, tears brimming over the surface of her eyes, that it all started to catch up with me at once.

“We couldn’t get Heather,” she sniffled, trying her best to still stand tall. “There were too many of them.”

“What about the Flightmare?” I asked hesitantly.

“Gone.”

“Viggo, too.” I moved closer to her. “Reign, this guy isn’t messing around.”

“No kidding.”

“Our dragons may not be enough. We’re gonna have to out-think this guy. Outsmart him somehow. Or Heather and Windshear have no chance of—“

“Don’t say it,” she interjected harshly, holding her hand up. “Please, just don’t say it.”

Shaking my head, I chose to move on from those thoughts, beginning to search the dock of the ship for some form of answers as the rest of the group caught up to us and landed, remaining silent for a long while.

“I don’t get it,” I muttered. “How did Viggo get away? How did we lose Heather, Windshear, and the Flightmare?”

“I don’t even want to think about what they’re going to do to her and those dragons.” Reign looked as though she was about to collapse, prompting me to make my way back over to her and place a hand on her back.

“You guys find anything?” I asked the rest of the group.

“No, the fog was too thick.” Fishlegs’ words weighed heavy with disappointment. “They used it as cover and just vanished.”

I could feel Reign’s breaths shortening and halting as her mind began to race, trying to pick just one thing out of the millions of thoughts that plagued her.

“We should’ve just pulled her out, Hiccup,” she stated harshly. “I knew something like this was—“ I shifted so that her back rested against my chest.

“Reign, she wouldn’t have come with us,” I reminded her.

“It could be worse.” It was hard to take the twins seriously when they were covered in glowing blue algae. “We could’ve brought the Dragon Eye.”

I raised an eyebrow at them, wondering how exactly they knew that I hadn’t brought the artifact.

“How do you know I didn’t bring the Dragon Eye?” Tuffnut started to mumble and stutter through his words, eventually bringing me to tell the truth. “Yeah, okay, you’re right. I didn’t bring it.”

“Thank Thor,” Astrid breathed as Snotlout landed.

“No kidding. Then Viggo would have Heather, Windshear, the Flightmare, and the Dragon Eye.” I heard Reign wince.

The longer my friends talked, the more I got to gather my thoughts, and I horrific realization hit me.

“Which is still back on Dragon’s Edge, completely unguarded.”

**_To Be Continued…_**


	27. Maces and Talons, Pt. 2 (Reign)

**_So, I’m creating two new Maces and Talons pieces: one that’s part of the actual set, and one that Reign creates herself._ **

**_…the thing is, one of them is going to be a red herring (look that up for those of you that don’t know. It’s important). After all, only one piece can represent each person. You’ll just have to wait to see which one she really is._ **

**_Oh! And, unrelated but important later: the way I chose to spell Reign’s was historically the male version of “Rain”, though the meanings are different. Among other things, its meaning is “little king”. Nowadays, it’s considered unisex. And, yes, I did this on purpose. It’s actually very important to her character_ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -- - - - - -- -_ **

With wide, panicked eyes, all of us rushed back to Dragon’s Edge. Even with our dragons pushed to their maximum speed, it took until morning to reach our base… though I wished we wouldn’t have had to look at the scene we’d been left. The entire place had been ransacked, with the arena and all our training equipment smashed up and shattered. Hiccup and my hut had been turned upside down, with our clothing and utensils scattered everywhere.

“Look at this. I feel violated,” Fishlegs shuddered.

“This was the last part of Viggo’s plan.” Hiccup just stared off into the horizon, his face completely hardened. I reached a hand out toward him, but hesitated, then dropped it completely. Now might not be the right time for that.

“Lead us away so the rest of the Hunters and armada could stay behind and come after the Dragon Eye.” I whipped around and glared at Snotlout, immediately silencing him.

“How did I not see it?”

My stomach dropped when we finally got around to checking our hiding place for the Dragon Eye and Hiccup fished around, only to find it completely empty.

“It’s gone.” He could barely get the words out, his voice strained. “They got it.” Not wanting to face that any longer, he slammed the lid of the trunk shut and stood, turning back to face Snotlout and I.

“Are you sure you put it away after you got it from the twins?” he questioned. Hiccup and I exchanged a confused glance for a moment, shaking our heads at each other.

“Got it back from the twins? What are you talking about?”

Once Snotlout finished with his lame attempts at explaining what he meant, better known as lying, he caved, got the rest of the group, and led us to a cave on the other side of the island. I was about to chew them out, when I got one look at the state of the place, and my jaw just dropped. The entire place was turned upside down, and there was a strange liquid over in one corner. Somehow, it was worse than the rest of the island.

“Wow,” was all I could get out at first. “They really wrecked this place.”

Tuffnut and Snotlout stepped forward, getting a good look at the damage to the hideaway they’d made while Hiccup and I had been gone.

“This is pretty much how we left it,” Snotlout shrugged.

“Except, I don’t remember that sword being there!” Tuffnut pointed to a sword run through the middle of an apple, which was keeping it secured in a boar head’s jaw.

“No, no, no, no.” Snotlout shook his head vigorously. “Remember, we were playing Pirates vs. Vikings and Bjorn was the pirate captain?

“Oh-oh. Right,” Tuffnut chuckled. “That is one great game.” Tuff also shrugged his shoulders as he looked at us. “Yeah, this is pretty much how we left it.”

Finally, from behind a broken crate, Tuffnut removed the Dragon Eye. However, I was only relieved for a split second, until a black liquid began to drip off its surface.

“What on earth is on there?” I gagged, appalled.

“Boar rind grease,” Tuff answered straightforward. “Don’t worry. It’ll buff out.” Tuff spat on it and rubbed the object on his sister’s back, but that just revealed the feathers stuck to it. “See? Well, it takes a while.”

Hiccup’s shoulders looked as though they were about to disappear into his neck as he marched up to Tuffnut and snatched the item from his hands.

“I can’t believe you took this without telling me. You know, all you had to do was ask and you could’ve used it. It belongs to all of us.”

“Yeah, you two,” Snotlout shouted, as though he didn’t have a part in this, “do you know what could’ve happened if Viggo got a hold of this?”

“Seems to me, if I hadn’t removed the Dragon Eye from your ‘masterful’ hiding place, we’d be having a very different conversation right now.” Sadly, Ruffnut had a point.

Catching movement out of the corner of my eye, I turned to see Hiccup leaning against the mouth of the cave, one hand over his mouth as he racked his brain. The mere sight of it made my heart ache. We’d been dealt a heavy blow from the Dragon Hunters—the least likely source of a loss. We were used to being outnumbered and outfought, but outsmarted? It didn’t bode well, especially for Hiccup, who already doubted himself greatly. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what this loss had done to him.

Taking care not to startle him, I draped one arm over his shoulder, and tucked the other into the space between his arm and his torso.

“Hey, you okay?” I murmured against his ear.

“Yeah…” I raised an eyebrow, reminding him he couldn’t lie to me. “No.”

I tried not to take it personally as he pushed away from me, remembering that Hiccup often got too deep into his head to be consoled by anything or anyone on the outside.

“Reign, I let it happen. I put Heather and Windshear in that position. I risked the Dragon Eye being taken. I fell for Viggo’s plan. It’s a mess.”

I shook my head, unwilling to let him completely blame himself on this.

“First of all, you can’t just blame yourself for Heather and Windshear.” I clasped my hands behind my back, trying my best to hide how badly they shook from him. “I was the one that talked you into keeping her with the Hunters in the first place; I am just as much to blame for what happened to my sister.” Though he tried his best not to show it, I saw that lifted a bit of the weight off his shoulders. “And, second… You’re right, this is a mess. But, if there’s a mess, we clean it up. All of us. Together.”

“We can get the A-Team from Berk, load up whatever weapons we can and go in, dragons blazing.” Fishlegs’ strategy had the inklings of a good plan. Once we got specifics down on it, we could stand a chance.

“Can I bring Macy?” The mischievous smile on Tuff’s face was actually welcome this time around. “She’s been begging to come along on a mission.”

“No. We’re not going anywhere. Nobody is going anywhere. Not yet, anyway.”

I turned back to Hiccup, surprised and confused. It’s not like we weren’t going to be smart about this and strategize. With the Hunters, we at least needed a little bit of force to come in swinging with. They wanted to fight dirty, then we’d have to bring in our troops… and yet, there appeared to be something else on his mind.

“Think about it,” he implored. “We do what we do really well. We’re a pretty smart group. We’re fast, we’re fearless, we ride dragons.” I offered a small nod, agreeing with him. “But this guy, Viggo, he manipulated us like we were a bunch of inexperienced little kids. If we have any chance against him, we can’t go in dragons blazing like we usually do. No, that could get Heather and Windshear killed. That could get one of us killed.”

“Well, I, for one, am definitely against us getting killed,” Tuffnut asserted. “Or at least my getting killed.”

“Yep, I have to agree. And not just because we’re twins and we always think the same thing.”

I shook my head, ready to move on from the twins.

“So, you just want to leave Viggo to hunting dragons at will?” I grunted. “You want to do nothing?” Hiccup rigorously shook his head, shutting that down before anyone ran away with it.

“I want to do the right thing. And that is going to take some thinking.”

He retreated back into himself, tapping his chin and pacing as he tried to think. Taking the hint, I quietly shooed the others away, instructing them to start cleaning up and repairing the Edge. Sighing, I started to kick at the ground and mess with my hair, waiting for him to come up with something. Whether he liked it or not, I wasn’t about to leave him to do any of this on his own; we’d always been stronger as a team, something we needed now more than ever.

After a long while spent in silence, Hiccup turned to me with a little bit of a sheepish smile.

“I know I said no one’s going anywhere, but… I think I need to go investigate something.” He started to get up on Toothless, and without giving him a chance to say he was going alone, I whistled for Shriek and climbed onto her back.

“Let’s go, then.”

Thankfully, he didn’t protest, and Shriek and I followed him and Toothless out into the middle of the ocean. We’d been flying for quite a while when I started to notice something familiar about the sea stacks and islands we went past.

“Hiccup, what are we doing?” I really should have asked that before we left, but I trusted him enough to not lead us straight into a death trap.

“Before we face Viggo again, we need to learn more about him. Let’s take another look at his ship. Maybe we missed something.”

The world remained eerily silent as the two of us boarded the dreaded ship. We turned over every barrel, pulled on every rope, and took extra care at analyzing any detail in the dragon cells below. Strangely, Viggo hadn’t set up any booby traps on his ship, though the door to his chambers was so far impenetrable—maybe for the best. I crouched down to get closer to the floor, thinking that would possibly reveal something we hadn’t seen before; but, just like every other instance, I came up completely barren.

“We’ve been through this place before, Hiccup. They took everything when they left,” I sighed. Hiccup, however, wasn’t one to give up that easily.

“You ever notice, Viggo never actually puts himself in danger,” he thought aloud as he walked past me. “He fights with his intellect. Planning every move, accounting for every scenario. Take Heather.”

My breath caught in my throat as his implications caught up to me.

“You think he knew she was working with us all along?” The mere thought of it made me feel sick.

“I think, at some point, he found out, and then he used her to manipulate us.”

I swallowed down the anger boiling in my stomach when Toothless purred behind us, catching our attentions. He was fixated on something in one of the cages with the door already up, sniffing and growling at whatever it was. Cautiously, the two of us approached the thing that completely encapsulated the dragon’s interest. Whatever it was had been draped in a tarp, not helping with the suspense.

When Hiccup finally pulled back the sheet, I got no more answers. It appeared to be a sort of game board, laid out with an island in the middle of two shores. The larger land masses each had one piece on them, while the island had one complete piece, and one that had been snapped in half. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I recognized this.

“Maces and Talons,” Hiccup gasped.

That name… I could remember moving the pieces on the board, the stone pieces always cold on my fingers. Though I still couldn’t quite recall his face, I knew it was my father across from me whenever we played. He would never help me, and I would lose quite a lot, but as I got older, I would manage to win the occasional game. There was one instance that stayed toward the front of my memory: Dagur had come in—I knew it was him because of the hair—and upon seeing what we were playing, threw a fit and started yelling at Dad. In particular, I remember him asking what made me more special than him. I could tell he was angry Dad and I were playing this game.

But… why?

“The ‘Viking King.’”

Hiccup snapped me out of my memories, enabling me to focus back on the important task at hand. He pointed to the piece on the left shore.

“That’s supposed to be me, trying to save the traitor.” Curious, I pointed to the piece on the opposite shore.

“Who’s that, then?” I hadn’t played this in a long while, so the details were fuzzy.

“The Chief of the Marauders,” he answered shortly. “If I had to guess, I’d say Viggo.” My eyes wandered to the piece stood behind the broken one, almost appearing to be holding it.

“So, that makes this one…?” I looked to Hiccup, waiting for him to finish his sentence. The longer he stared at it, the more prominent the blush on his face grew—not one of embarrassment, but one of pure rage.

“The Ally.” Gently, he brushed his fingers over it. “They don’t have any allegiance to either player’s pieces. At first, the player who reaches the Ally first takes them to their side, but once that’s been done, if the other player wants them, they have to barter other pieces with the one who captured the Ally.” Hiccup’s knuckles were white against the sides of the board. “I think that’s supposed to be you; you have allegiances on both sides with us and your family.”

I dug my fingers into my sides as he made the connection.

“How could he possibly think…” Suddenly, I got distracted by the broken piece, realizing that if it was near me, it had to have some importance. Taking care not to lose one of the ends, I scooped it up in my hands.

“And this piece?” Now, the rest of his face matched his hands.

“That is the ‘Traitor.’” Unfortunately, that didn’t need much explaining.

“Also known as Heather,” I gasped out, my breath suddenly completely leaving my lungs. “It’s almost like Viggo wanted you to see this.”

“It’s a challenge from him to me.” The longer he thought the implications over, the hoarser his voice became. “He’s daring me to play.”

“Why did he break Heather’s piece?” I didn’t want to ask, but I knew that I had to have the answer.

“Because the Traitor dies in the end. The Traitor always dies.”

Someone punched the air out of my lungs. The pieces appeared to fall in slow motion when Hiccup put them back into the board and slung the tarp over it, trying to take it back with us. He spoke to me, occasionally shaking me to try and bring me to, but it felt like my head had been shoved underwater.

“We have to go _now_.” Somehow, I still managed to speak.

The flight back to the Edge did absolutely nothing to comfort me, but knowing that we were going to strategize the moment we returned at least got my heart rate to calm back down. Hiccup and I found the others in the cave, and without explaining, slammed the board down, demanding the others to pay attention. I’d thought they’d be as confused as I was, but instead, all their eyes lit up when they saw the object, and Fishlegs even began to bounce with excitement.

“Hiccup, Maces and Talons!” he exclaimed happily. “Does this mean…?”

“No, Fishlegs.” Hiccup derailed whatever he was thinking quickly.

“But, Maces and Talons was designed to test the abilities and decision-making expertise of future chiefs in the heart of battle.”

My eyes widened at Fishlegs’ words. Gently, I leaned against one of the borders of the game board, staring him down and causing him to squirm uncomfortably.

“What did you just say?” Everything came out hoarse, the absurdity of everything overwhelming me.

“Reign?” Hiccup placed a hand on my shoulder, concerned.

“I used to play this game with my dad all the time,” I whispered. “He’d never let Dagur play; it was only me. I had to have been…” Quickly, I did the math in my head, adding three years to whatever I’d initially thought. “…eleven, maybe twelve. And I played up until I got taken, so until I was… fourteen.”

The rest of the group soon mimicked my expression, eyes wide and jaws dropped slightly. The implications of this were bigger than any of the rest of us… but at the moment, it wasn’t what mattered. We needed to get to Viggo, outsmart him, and save my sister as soon as humanly possible.

“Viggo left this for Hiccup.” I cleared my throat, prompting him to take over. At the moment, I wanted nothing more than to disappear into the background.

“He wants me to play Maces and Talons with him.”

“Viggo’s here?” I jumped as the twins appeared on either side of us, and Snotlout approached from the back

“We got next!” Hiccup ducked over the board, covering the pieces to make sure no one moved any of them even an inch.

“Guys, no, no,” he scolded. “He’s not here and we’re not using the board. We’re playing for real, with real people. Viggo is forcing my hand. He’s making me play him for Heather’s life.”

“What happens if you don’t play?” I shook my head at Fishlegs as Hiccup presented the broken piece to him, causing him to whimper fearfully. “Oh, no, no, no. Well, you _have_ to play, Hiccup. You just have to.”

“And we need a strategy.” Every time Snotlout was reasonable, as opposed to snarky and loud, it always caught me off-guard.

“We do, Snotlout,” I confirmed. “And that strategy has to be different than any he’s ever seen or tried. Otherwise, Heather won’t stand a chance.” I paused for a moment, thinking through possibilities. “But, we also have to be prepared to think on our feet. Viggo is clearly a smart man, and he’ll likely pick up on anything we do and have a counterattack. We have to make sure that when he throws something new at us, we can react accordingly.” Sighing, I threw the tarp back over the board. “That’s not going to help us. We need to think with real people.”

I didn’t really notice everyone was watching me as I began to pace back and forth, closing my eyes to try and picture every scenario. The trouble became that we didn’t know how many men Viggo had, so we couldn’t account for how many Hunters might be coming at us, if he even used all his men; if Viggo knew what he was doing, he wouldn’t make use of his full army. There also came the issue of the base—Heather’s aid was out of the question now, meaning we’d have to figure out the location the old fashioned way. Of course, we had something that might be able to help us out.

“Ruff, Tuff, Fishlegs, I need you to clean off the Dragon Eye.” Without even thinking, I’d started to give out orders. “Hiccup, go back to our hut and get every lens that we have. Everyone make sure that your dragons are here. We have to figure out where Viggo’s base is.”

I halted my steps when I looked up to see Hiccup and Astrid smirking at each other, while the rest of the group wore smiles on their faces.

“What?” I snapped, uncomfortable with all the eyes on me.

“Your Maces and Talons connection is starting to make a lot of sense,” Astrid laughed, placing a hand on my shoulder as she brushed past me.

Though I’d asked for all the dragons, I had a feeling I knew where the map might be hiding. We didn’t have the time to find every known dragon and test their fire, so I just had to hope my inkling turned out to be true. Just to be sure, we tested out all the others’ dragons, but they came up short and with the same old maps we’d seen before.

Now, came the real test. Though it wore her out, I had Shriek release her bright blue fireball, spilling the contents onto the stone. As expected, images about the Thunderdrum came up first, and while there definitely was information we hadn’t seen before, we didn’t have time to take notes. Hiccup and I flipped through each lens and class button, until finally, _finally_ , a map that led to a large island marked by the Dragon Hunter symbol appeared.

“That has to be it,” I breathed, running my fingers over the image projected on the wall. “It’s massive.”

“It’s also pretty far away,” Hiccup observed. “We need to leave soon if we want to get there before—“

“Nope, nope, don’t say it.” I brushed aside some of my hair. “Besides, if we leave now, our strategy will be sloppy. We have to make sure we’re ready.”

The seven of us studied the map carefully, attempting to pull something together that was both specific enough to be effective, but loose enough that we had room to change what we would do based on Viggo’s parries. By the time we’d finished, the afternoon sun stood prominent over our heads, and although something still didn’t feel right about what we’d put together, it would have to do. While Astrid, Fishlegs, and Snotlout secured the dragon armor on those that had it, I made my way over to Hiccup, wanting to address the last yak in the room.

“Hey.” He glanced at me briefly, offering a half-hearted smile. “I’m going to say this now. Whatever you have in that head of yours for when Viggo shows himself, I’m coming with you.” I watched the immediate panic infect his features.

“What? Reign, no. I’m not putting you in the line of fire like that.” I shook my head and took his hands in mine.

“It’s not your decision to make.” Maybe that was a bit threatening, but at least the sentiment was there. “We work best when we’re a team. Viggo is expecting to face you, for sure, and it appears he thinks I’m someone to be claimed and traded. And that is going to be his mistake. We’re a team, not just in battle, and will be for as long as we live. We face Viggo together.”

Something strange crossed Hiccup’s face for a moment, until it was wiped away by a determined smile, and he nodded.

“Now, let’s go save your sister.”

It was the dead of night by the time we got near where we’d marked off the Hunter base. The seven of us remained above the clouds, keeping out of sight of any guards that might be scanning for dragons in the sky.

“All right, remember guys, Viggo is a master of deception,” Hiccup shouted to the group. “We have to be one step ahead of him at all times or it’s game over.”

“Sounds a little to me like it’s already ‘game over,’” Tuffnut muttered, just loud enough for us to hear.

“Yep, that was my interpretation,” Ruff confirmed.

Right as I was about to chew them out, the familiar whizzing of arrows came closer, and we found ourselves having to dodge sooner than expected. The fact they were able to make such precise estimates of where we were didn’t make much sense.

“Whoa!” Fishlegs cried as he and Meatlug swerved out of the way. “Where are those coming from?”

“Beneath the cloud cover,” Astrid informed him. “They must have ships down there.”

“How did they know we were up here?”

My question was answered just seconds later, when Snotlout caught up with the group on top of a flaming Hookfang, creating light around us. It took him a moment to catch on to the way everyone was glaring at him, and even after that, he gawked at all of us like he didn’t understand what was going on.

“What?” he snapped. “I was chilly. Now I’m warm and toasty.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Snotlout, even I’m not really bothered by the cold.”

The flurry of arrows increased by the second, and while overall that didn’t bode well, it at least indicated something with vague inklings of hope in it.

“We must be close to the island.”

Sure enough, when we passed through the layer of clouds we’d been hiding above, a large island came into view, sculpted out in the middle to lead down to what appeared to be a tent. It strangely dark and quiet below, but I knew there were people down there. No way Viggo would flee in a moment like this.

“Are you sure that’s it?” Fishlegs asked. “It looks kinda deserted.”

In a heart-stopping moment of irony, a large burst of fire shot up right by Meatlug, causing her rider to scream as he steered her out of the way.

“And I stand corrected.”

Before the next set of fire explosions came up toward us, we were able to get a little closer and figure out whatever had just tried to roast us alive. Down below, four Hunters stood with spears readied, poking at the sides of chained Typhoomerangs to make them fire whenever they wanted. To the average Rider, it might be intimidating enough to make them flee, but it would take more than that to scare us off. Of course, Viggo most likely knew that.

“He’s using flipping Typhoomerangs as blow torches?” At this point, Snotlout’s jaw was nearly on the floor.

“I thought you liked it toasty,” Astrid teased.

“I like toasty, not toast _ed_.” The next wave of Typhoomerang fire came up faster than the last one, meaning we needed to get moving.

“I have to say, you totally undersold this guy, Hiccup. He’s way more devious than—“

Neither of us wanted to listen to this for another moment, and instead swooped in on our dragons to get a better look at our first unknown obstacle. As far as possibilities went, it wasn’t that far out from what we’d accounted for, but Typhoomerangs in particular actually made it a little easier. Sure, their fire covered a lot of surface area, but there was a specific weakness to them that we could use to our advantage.

“Maybe we should turn back?” Astrid suggested once she’d ducked under a stream of fire. “Find a place to regroup? There’s no way we’re getting through that.”

“No. All this is just a distraction.” Hiccup was exactly right.

“It’s fire, Hiccup. _Actual_ fire.”

“I’m gonna have to concur on that one.” I glanced back at Tuffnut to see his helmet had caught fire somehow, but he knew how to put that out, so he could deal with it.

“What I mean is, Viggo doesn’t want us to retreat,” Hiccup clarified while we dodged the next set of fire. “It just seems that way. He wants us to get past the fire and the arrows. He wants me to find Heather. And then, his game really begins.”

Just thinking of the fact Viggo had my sister locked up, treating her like she was less than human made me want to rip him apart. As of late, I’d discovered I had some of that Berserker anger deep in me, only surfacing when I was really pushed, and I fully planned to put in on display when we finally got to look him in the eyes.

“Well, if he wants us to get through, he’s got a funny way of showing it,” Snotlout bellyached.

“He doesn’t want us to get through,” I countered, seeing right through the strategy. “He wants us to go around and attack him from the back.”

“Oh, that sounds way better.” Of course, Snotlout understood Hiccup and I well enough to know the obvious plan wouldn’t be the one we went for. “But, that’s not what we’re doing, is it?”

I looked to Hiccup, confirming that we both had the same strategy, then he turned Toothless slightly to get ready.

“Nope,” he confirmed. “We’re going in this way. Straight through the fire.” No one else in the group said a word, probably still attempting to process what had just come out of Hiccup’s mouth. “Now, I know you guys think I’m nuts.”

“Yes,” Snotlout retorted.

“The fire from the Typhoomerangs is like a giant tornado,” I explained. “If we fly right into the eye of it, it’ll be hot, but the fire won’t touch it.” Saying it out loud, it definitely sounded insane, but we were out of options. No way was I going to let us go into whatever trap waited on the other side of the island, and I knew Hiccup held the same stance.

“ _Inside_ it? This whole plan sounds completely theoretical.” I chose to block out Snotlout’s pessimism. Any doubt that threatened us would make us rethink, and we didn’t have room for that.

“My fine sister and I have performed said feat of daring many times throughout the history of Nut.”

“Yeah, for fun! It does work. As long as you don’t panic while you’re inside.”

Honestly, having the twins’ stamp of approval on this made me feel better. And while the rest of the group didn’t feel the same way, but Hiccup and I weren’t giving them options. All of us lined up, some right behind others since there were only four Typhoomerangs, and the moment the Hunters poked them again, we dove in. We had to move slowly to make sure we wouldn’t reach the end too soon, and thankfully, we’d only made it about halfway when we heard the call for a ceasefire.

The way the Dragon Hunters stared at us with shock made me feel a lot better about all this.

“Hello, boys. How’s it going?” Snotlout waved. “Fire!”

Once Toothless scared away the Hunter staring at the two of us, Hiccup and I felt it safe enough to move on to the next part of our plan.

“You guys free the Typhoomerangs,” he ordered. “We’re going to find Heather.”

The island grew quieter as Hiccup and I flew over the base, cutting around through the woods to look for some sign of life. Strangely, those Typhoomerangs and Hunters were the only ones we’d run into after the arrows from the ships, meaning either Viggo had put all his money on us going around, or he already had something else planned, and was lying in wait for the right moment to attack us.

The only indication we got that we were heading in the right direction was two measly soldiers without weapons, which Hiccup and Toothless rendered unconscious without an issue. The woods below were filled with cages, but that didn’t mean that’s where Heather was. In fact, everything about this seemed too obvious, meaning it likely wouldn’t be the solution at all. Still, it was worth a shot, especially due to the one cage glowing an ominous, yet familiar blue at the very end of the maze.

“Let’s get a closer look.”

When Hiccup and I landed, we decided it would be best to leave our dragons to stand watch. Attempting to navigate them through this whole thing would prove to slow us down, and if Viggo had any sort of integrity, he wouldn’t go for our dragons when we weren’t around to attempt and put up a fair fight.

The moment we walked into the unknown, I removed my sword from its sheath and Hiccup his shield from his back, preparing for whatever might pose a threat to us. A few cages rattled with dragons, and as bad as I felt that we weren’t going to free them, we had to focus on our main target.

Suddenly, two Nadder spines came shooting out toward us, barely missing Hiccup because I stuck my hand out in front of him, pushing him back. The way Viggo had designed this maze was definitely brilliant, I had to give him that, designed with distractions to make us flinch around every turn. But, we managed to push through without either of us getting hurt, until we reached the glowing cage in question. My stomach gurgled and churned as I looked down at the poor Flightmare, all chained up and muzzled.

“What have they done to you?” Hiccup whispered, staring at the poor dragon in horror.

I pulled him back as it ran at the bars, trying to ram itself into Hiccup. It genuinely hurt to leave the Flightmare here, especially after approaching, but I just kept my mind focused on Heather.

“We’ll be back,” Hiccup assured the dragon as I yanked on his arm, reminding him we were on a clock. “I promise.”

“Look, we’ll never find her this way,” I sighed as we made it through the next set of cages. “We need to get a better vantage point.”

The two of us looked around, trying to figure out a way to get higher without calling for our dragons and revealing ourselves. I’d thought maybe climbing on an empty cage would be the way to go, but Hiccup pointed out what looked to be an empty catapult, which we could use to launch ourselves; that was infinitely better. I secured my arms tight around his waist, then he shot out the wire from the middle of his shield, wrapping it around the weapon and pulling to launch us up and over the rock wall into the next area.

I sucked in a strangled breath, hopeful when a cage with what appeared to be a person draped in a tarp came into view. I allowed myself to brush away any suspicions, lured in by the oasis right there in front of me. The sheet moved in a steady rhythm, meaning she was alive under there, and even if Viggo, Ryker, or Dagur had dared to hurt her, we could get her back to the Edge and heal her. Right now, I just wanted to be able to hug my sister.

And then, reality came crashing down as Hiccup pulled aside the tarp, revealing a man who stood and sneered at the two of us. With his attire and the dark sort of satisfaction that made him stand tall, he had to be Viggo. His eyes bore directly through me, completely submitting me to backing up as he took strides toward Hiccup and I.

“Welcome, Hiccup.” He spoke so smoothly, creating a deep sense of unease throughout my entire body.

“Where’s Heather?” I growled once my voice came back to me. Viggo’s cold eyes focused right on mine, making me want to shrink away. What the hell was happening? No one person had ever made me feel this afraid before.

“You must be the older sister.” He appeared so nonchalant about everything. “The one with the boy’s name. Your brother warned me that Hiccup might arrive with a body guard.” I felt strangely demeaned by that comment. “Well, unfortunately, I have some bad news. She won’t be joining us tonight. But, on the positive side, your partner has far exceeded my expectations.” His reference to Hiccup made me hold the sword a little higher—a silent warning that he couldn’t touch him. “I would assume that is partially due to your help. Good on you.”

The rustling of leaves all around us diverted my attention away from the man in front of us, showing the source of the noise to be at least a dozen guards, all with arrows aimed right at the two of us. I gently nudged Hiccup and nodded my head toward them, making him aware of the second threat we now faced.

“So many guards, so little time.” Viggo clicked his tongue, pretending to be disappointed. “But, please, I am enjoying this. I’ll give you both a head start.”

“Why would you do that?” Hiccup asked, mirroring my suspicion.

“Because, I’m nothing if not a good sport. And, if I didn’t, the game would end here. And what fun would that be?”

He most certainly was lying through his teeth, but my fight instinct kicked in suddenly, so I grabbed onto Hiccup’s hand and yanked him along behind me, letting go only once the two of us fell into a steady sprint. Though we were already going like chickens with our heads cut off, we had to try and prepare for whatever came next.

“All right, think,” Hiccup prompted, panting slightly. “Why would he give us a head start? He knows we have—“

I suddenly stepped in front of Hiccup, slamming him into me and bringing the two of us to a halt. We’d been cut off by two Hunters holding the Flightmare in front of us, the rearing and thrashing of its head indicating it was ready to fire on a moment’s notice. At least a little bit of relief came in the form of Toothless and Shriek jumping up onto opposite cages, growling at the Hunters.

“Thank Thor you guys are okay,” I breathed out. Somehow, Hiccup and I had found ourselves in a strange formation where his shield was in front of me, but my sword blocked his body.

“There you are.” My attention snapped upwards as Viggo appeared atop a cage. “Didn’t get as far as I imagined.”

“Game’s over, Viggo,” Hiccup threatened.

“I’m so sorry you feel that way. Was I not a worthy adversary?” He shook his head, still holding all that pomp and circumstance she displayed so effortlessly. “Don’t answer that. Your surrender speaks volumes.”

That was a bold assumption.

“No one is surrendering,” Hiccup growled.

“All right, then here’s what I propose. Turn over what you stole from me, what has belonged to my tribe for centuries, and I will give serious thought to letting you and your friends go free.”

Technically speaking, his argument was logically sound. We had, in fact, stolen an artifact that didn’t belong to us, and now someone that could pass as the rightful owner was asking for it back. However, Hiccup and I understood full well what would happen if the Hunters were to use the Dragon Eye, so the logic went out the window.

“You’re talking about the Dragon Eye.” Viggo’s smirk at the name offered no more reassurance that it would be placed in good hands.

“’Dragon Eye.’ A fitting name,” he mused. “If you don’t mind, I’ll use that.” Hiccup shifted slightly, sliding up onto Toothless’ back.

“Well, have it your way, Viggo. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Right as Hiccup and Toothless were about to fire, two arms grabbed onto me from behind, restricting me completely. Desperate and enraged, I began to thrash, kick, and bite, attempting to shake the Hunter holding me down, but even as I made contact with his skin, he didn’t flinch. I was forced to watch, helpless, as the other two Hunters pulled on the Flightmare’s restraints, angering it enough to make it fire its mist straight at Hiccup and Toothless, freezing them in place.

As the Hunters cheered, I was finally let go, and my mind started to slip away, instead replaced simply by the color red. Viggo looked to me, clearly expecting me to start swinging or retaliate in some violent way, but instead, I just laughed.

“You are a fool, Viggo,” I cackled. “You are such a foolish man.”

“And why is that?” he challenged. Somewhere deep down, my logic resisted the urge to lunge for him, knowing the Hunters would stop me.

“You believe me to be the Ally.” I began to twirl my sword in my hand. “You think that you can predict everything that I would do, and that my allegiance can be bought simply for the life of my sister—the person I assumed you were going to offer a trade for. But, the problem becomes that you are trying to turn people, who are complex beings, into simple pieces of carved stone. The entire time we have spoken, you have reduced me to someone less than the Viking King—an ally to be bartered and traded, a body guard, someone’s sister and nothing more. But I am not less than anyone. I am not what you predicted I am.”

“Enlighten me, then,” he coaxed. “What are you?” I halted in my movements completely, standing as tall as possible as I stared Viggo down.

“The Viking Queen,” I answered harshly. “She and the Viking King are equals. Although they are strongest as a team, they are still powerful alone. They rely on each other for council and strategy, but also for protection in the midst of a battle. But there is one thing about her that stands most important.” Briefly, my eyes moved to Hiccup. “She is _fiercely_ loyal to her king. There is not a thing you could say or do that would make me even think of leaving his side. Because, at the end of the day, whatever bargain you propose, we will find a way to get them back without having to trade. Every life on our side is worth protecting.”

Strangely, Viggo appeared to be caught off guard by my words. He stared at me curiously, his brows furrowed and his posture oddly relaxed.

And then, suddenly, my legs refused to bend, then my torso felt tight, my arms stayed in place, and finally, my head was forced to stay staring straight ahead. Though my mind raced and begged my sword to swing the closer Viggo got, my body remained completely immobile.

“You and your ‘king’ played right into my hands,” he sneered, mocking me. “To be honest, I expected more.”

Whatever he did next, I couldn’t see, but the cheers of the Hunters told me everything I needed to know: we’d just lost the Dragon Eye.

“Hiccup Haddock the Third—and, I suppose to an equal degree, Reign of the Berserkers—I have enjoyed our time together. I do truly hope we are able to compete again.”

After a short while, the world fell quiet, almost peaceful following what had unfolded. The shouts and blasts of Riders and Hunters died down, leaving only the occasional rustling of leaves as the wind ran through them, taunting me with the way it could so effortlessly move. In the time I was frozen, I couldn’t stop scolding myself, my anger and resentment for the Hunters quickly turning onto me. I had let my defenses down, wrongly believing that I had bested Viggo. He was a cunning man, wickedly brilliant, too, yet somehow, dim-witted me had thought I actually did something. How was it possible that one person could make me question myself so heavily, and strip away the few things I thought to be true about myself?

Somehow, he even managed to strip away the pride I wore with my name. I had always introduced myself confidently, letting the odd and uncommon name rattle around in people’s heads for however long it pleased to take up space there. I could remember my father telling me it was the name of a warrior, brave and cunning enough to be a queen. And now, to learn he had given me a boy’s name, coupled with the short hair he’d always make me wear as a child… I started to believe he maybe wasn’t so proud of his daughter.

What else in my life had been a lie?

Hiccup broke free from the effects of the Flightmare mist first, and immediately ran to stand in front of me, holding my shoulders and apologizing profusely until I finally was able to move again. He stared into my eyes with the same self-hatred I was experiencing, but there was no way I’d let him think he was anything less than brilliant.

So, when he noticed the tracks of the Dragon Hunters, I decided to follow him, rather than going to look for Heather.

We followed the boot prints all the way to a cave, the noises echoing from deep inside tipping us off that we’d found the right place. Toothless and Shriek blasted away and knocked out any Hunter soldiers that tried to stand in our way, and finally, we reached the very end, where we found two soldiers, Ryker, Viggo, and the Flightmare himself.

“Viggo!”

Unfortunately, our time there was short-lived. The moment Hiccup and I arrived, Viggo allowed his soldiers to release the Flightmare. Suddenly, we were the ones being chased, just narrowly avoiding getting hit with more mist off the confines of the cave. We managed to get out with barely a lead on the dragon, but Hiccup and Toothless still got far enough up in the air to spot the rest of our friends… who were directly in the line of fire.

“Guys, out of the way!”

The Flightmare now began to chase the rest of the group, managing to spray the twins and Snotlout and send them crashing down onto the island below. Astrid and I caught up to Hiccup, watching everything unfold with panic.

“We need to get this thing out of here, back on its food trail.” Astrid read my mind.

Right as the Flightmare turned and stared down the three of us, a silver blur shot down in front of us, forming a protective barrier between our two sides. For the first time since this mess started, hope and relief swelled in my chest, causing me to let out an elated gasp.

“Heather!” She’d gotten out alive and unharmed. Momentarily, she looked back to me and smiled, assuring me she was fine, before she focused her attention back on the Flightmare.

“Don’t hurt it, girl,” she ordered Windshear. “We just need to scare it off.”

Heather, Astrid, Hiccup, and I managed to corner the dragon, shooting and screaming at it until it finally turned tail and flew off toward the horizon, hopefully making its way back to the algae trail so that it could get home.

For now, we had done all that we could. However, Hiccup didn’t want to accept it, still practically trembling with rage.

“Come on! Let’s sweep the tunnels!” I shook my head, unwilling to chase a lost cause.

“Hiccup, there’s no way he’s still down there. You know Viggo had this whole thing figured out from start to finish. He’s long gone by now.”

The scream that ripped through his throat sent a terrified shudder through me.

The moment we got the opportunity, Heather and I jumped off our dragons, hugging each other as tight as possible. Even with her here with me, it still didn’t feel real; I couldn’t convince myself she was fine… and that’s because, truthfully, she wasn’t. For the moment, she’d been saved, but if she came with us or went somewhere familiar, the Hunters would no doubt find her with the help of our brother. Desperately, I wanted to ask her to say, to put her in a place where I could make sure she was safe, but I knew I’d only be leading her to her destruction.

Though it hurt more than words could ever describe, I told Heather to run. She remained for a little while longer, then finally, my sister got up onto her dragon and the two of them took off in a completely different direction than she would’ve normally.

With that resolved, I made my way back to the others, walking to Hiccup as he stared off toward the empty horizon line.

“Where’s Heather?” The anger in his tone frightened me slightly, but I remained calm as I shook my head, indicating she’d gone.

“He got the Dragon Eye, didn’t he?” Hiccup flicked his eyes away, no longer able to meet mine. “We’ll get it back, Hiccup. Besides, he has no Snow Wraith key. Without that, it’s useless.”

Hiccup reached into his saddle bag and removed the Chief of the Marauders piece, staring at it like it would somehow turn into Viggo.

“And he knows that. So, why did he want it so badly?”

We could sit there and contemplate it for hours, but quite frankly, I didn’t have the energy for it. I just wanted to go back to the Edge and go to sleep, but Hiccup still wouldn’t move. Gently, I reached out and pulled on his hand, getting him to slide off his dragon and stand closer to me. I rested my nose against his cheek, holding him to offer comfort.

I wanted to reassure him that everything would work out, and that we’d be able to beat Viggo before he got the change to lay his hands on another dragon. But, deep down, I knew I couldn’t make those promises, and Hiccup wouldn’t buy them either. Instead, I just kept holding onto him.

Our darkest nights were still ahead.


	28. Enemy of my Enemy (Hiccup)

**_I went back and forth for a while on whether or not I wanted Reign to go with Hiccup, mainly because I don’t want to just be writing the episode as is. However, I think it’s important for her to not see Dagur as a changed man for later on, so I’m keeping her out of the events of this episode. To make sure there are enough changes sprinkled throughout, I’m going to put in a good amount of references to her._ **

**_Also, I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t edit this section even a little. I’ve been under so much stress lately with the new house, combined with wanting to get this out within a reasonable timeline. Sleep? I don’t know her. Regular eating times? We’re not friends_ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -- - -_ **

Purple and pink hues still outlined the sky when I grabbed Toothless and the two of us snuck off to the dragon stables, trying our best not to wake the other member of the household. If she knew what I was doing, she’d have my head, but I thankfully managed to get out of there without waking her—at least for the time being; I chose not to focus on what would happen when my dragon and I inevitably had to come back. She’d been ragging on me about going off on recon flights alone for the past few weeks, but I couldn’t just stop. That wasted valuable time that we couldn’t afford not to have.

I tried my best to work quickly against my protesting dragon, linking together the pieces of Gronkle Iron in a way that hopefully wouldn’t pinch his scales too much. Toothless still grumbled and shook his legs, giving it his best shot at trying to get the armor off. He finally managed to loosen one of the rings, and several of the smaller pieces went flying, just narrowly missing my head.

“Oh, come on, bud, work with me here, please?” I sighed, growing more exasperated by the second. However, Toothless snarled at me, showing that he wasn’t about to go down easy with this fight.

Despite his fighting, I wasn’t about to give up on getting this armor on my dragon. He was more vulnerable without it, and I feared that if we got hit with one of those dragon root arrows, we’d be caught with no one knowing where we were to come rescue us. Deciding to take a different approach, I scooped up the discarded armor and started to lead Toothless outside, occasionally having to shush him or one of the other dragons. Shriek wouldn’t stop staring at me with her yellow eyes, making me feel like I was under intense scrutiny.

“We’re almost out of here, so Toothless, just—“

The moment I opened the doors to the stable, my heart jolted and stopped, freezing me in place. There stood Reign, hands planted firmly against her hips with her left eyebrow raised high in the air. Her lips had cemented themselves into a thin line, glaring at me with an alarming amount of fire in her eyes. I thought I’d managed to get up and slip out without her noticing, but there was pretty substantial evidence in front of me that I’m not as slick as I’d initially thought.

“Reign!” My voice wavered slightly, startled as I returned her gaze. “Hey! Hey. So, what brings you here so early in the morning? You going for a flight on Shriek? Yeah, well, same here. With Toothless, though, of course.” She didn’t appear to be buying my quick excuses, but I couldn’t stop myself from rambling at this point. “Because, Shriek, you know, that would be—“

“I don’t believe this.” At least she cut me off before things really started to run away. “You’re going for a recon flight. Alone. With no support. No cover. We talked about this.” My shoulders slumped as I sighed, but I wasn’t about to give up here; I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t do this.

“I know. I just didn’t want to wake anybody. It’s no big deal. Really.” I dismissed. Unfortunately, Reign wasn’t one to relent either.

“Yes, it is,” she snapped, leering at me. “It’s way too risky.” Something on my face must have unconsciously shifted, because she backed up suddenly and started to speak in a much more understanding tone. “Hiccup, he’s not out there. It’s been months since the Viggo…”

Just hearing his name caused my face to crawl hot with shame. My failure that night followed me everywhere, taunting me both in silence and when I was surrounded by work or bustling friends. I couldn’t even face Reign when our aggressor’s name spilled from her mouth, unwilling to look at the person I felt I’d let down the most. She often tried her best to assure me otherwise, reminding me we’d gotten her sister out of there, but no matter what, it just didn’t feel like we’d managed to actually accomplish something.

“…fiasco?” I finished, stepping past her to turn my back to her.

“I was going to say ‘episode.’” She kept her words casual and calm, as though this entire event meant absolutely nothing. “You have to stop this. You’re gonna wear yourself into the ground looking for this guy who doesn’t want to be found.”

I couldn’t accept that.

“I’m fine, Reign, really.” I knew she didn’t believe me, but I had bigger concerns at the moment. “Besides, maybe Viggo isn’t out there, but his Hunters are. If I can find one to question—“

“They won’t tell you a thing,” she shrugged.

“You don’t know that,” I argued, holding tight to my plans.

Reign’s eyebrow flew straight into the air again, forcing me to turn right back around. We both stood there in silence for a while, until I heard her sigh, and determined footsteps made their way closer to me, then I felt arms wrap around my waist. There was an instant calming effect as she leaned her nose against my cheek, her smile evident even in her words.

“Look, if you’re going, at least let me and Shriek go with you.”

There was no way I was about to lead her into that sort of scenario. The last time she faced the Hunters with little backup (not that I’d really call her Thunderdrum backup, as capable as she is), she got shot in the shoulder by her own brother. And that brought up another dangerous issue entirely: Dagur. He’d likely want to spill any of our blood if he got the chance, but Reign in particular was likely at the top of his hit list at this point. She had helped Heather to safety, and even if Dagur was around to see it, he at least had enough of a brain to separate her as the most likely candidate. I didn’t even want to think about what would befall her if he managed to get his hands on her.

Still, she wasn’t going to let up, so I’d at least have to say _something._

“Fine,” I grunted.

An easy smile crossed her face, then she pet Toothless and rushed into the stables to let Shriek out of her cage and put her dragon’s armor and saddle on.

I’d pay for this later, but I couldn’t focus on that in the moment. Instead, I snatched up the dragon armor I’d pretended to discard and faced Toothless, hoping he’d just comply this time.

“Okay, bud. It’s now or never,” I whispered.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t even get the plates of Gronkle Iron on his scales before he batted it away, growling at me as a warning. There was absolutely no way I could get this stuff on him without a fight, but if I didn’t leave soon, Reign would finish with Shriek, and I’d be leading her into danger. I’d just have to compromise this and hope it didn’t come back to bite me while we were gone.

I was sure Reign heard when Toothless took off, but there was no way Shriek was ready enough for her to catch up to us, not to mention she likely didn’t know what direction we were going in. Of course, that wouldn’t stop her from looking; I just hoped she wouldn’t run into any danger along the way.

“When Reign finds out you’re not wearing your armor, I am not covering for you,” I shouted down at my dragon. In response, he gave his wings one aggressive flap and turned himself straight upwards, causing us to shoot up toward the clouds in mere seconds. “But, with all that armor on, would we be able to do this?”

I shifted my leg forward to completely fan out Toothless’ artificial tail fin, then pulled slightly on his saddle, prompting him to loop upside down once before diving back toward the water’s surface, stopping just short of going under. The speed with which he flew along the sea below us caused the wind to sting and prickle my cheeks, but none of it bothered me. I’d been so focused on finding and protecting our base from Viggo, I hadn’t taken the time to fly on Toothless if it wasn’t for recon. I’d missed it much more than I’d let myself believe, evidenced by the laugh that escaped from me as we leveled out.

“Man, that new tail is awesome,” I marveled as I stared back at it. Sure, the yellow and black wasn’t exactly subtle, but I’d wanted to try something new for fabric colors. The red actually stood out more, shockingly enough.

Purely on his own volition, Toothless turned upside-down and dipped me under the water, pulling us through the glassy liquid for a while before popping back up, still dangling me for a little while longer.

“I owe you one.” Toothless chortled in a way that imitated laughter.

Once we’d righted ourselves again, I took one glance down below the clouds, and spotted a wooden ship sitting idle in the middle of the water, a bright red insignia painted on the sail. That was shockingly easy, but either way, I’d take anything I could get, at this rate; anything that could give me even a hint as to Viggo’s location was welcome.

“Gotcha. Hey, bud? Let’s get in closer.”

Strangely, when Toothless stopped to hover above the ship’s deck, I noticed a bit of smoke coming off the side of the ship, and any of the Hunters and soldiers on board were collapsed, eyes closed and weapons discarded from their hands. They were definitely still breathing, but… it looked like someone had already attacked them.

Curious, I moved Toothless to land on the deck and stared at the scene, now seeing splintered boards. There wasn’t any sign of a person’s attack, leading me to only one source of the damage.

“Looks like a dragon might have got the best of ‘em,” I shrugged, unsure of what else to think. Toothless dropped a little lowered and growled, his pupils turning to slits. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

Right as those words left my mouth, the downed Hunters sprung to life, pointing their bows straight at Toothless and I. I lunged back a little, baffled and caught completely off-guard. The smoke, the complete damage to the ship, the way the Hunters even looked like they had scratches and burns… everything had been carefully planned—no doubt by Viggo himself—for one of us to fall into; Toothless and I had just been the unlucky pair.

“What the… Sky, Toothless!”

The flurry of arrows came soaring in our direction, just narrowly avoided with careful dodges. For a moment, the storm relented, and I felt safe enough to turn Toothless around and start to head back… which was exactly when I heard something strike Toothless’ scales, and he cried out in pain and began to plummet toward the water. In my moment of ignorance, a Hunter had managed to shoot my dragon, who served as the only way the two of us could get out of here.

Though he was dazed and his legs hung down strangely, I managed to get Toothless back upright and gliding toward an island just on the horizon. At that point, we were out of the range of the arrows, so we wouldn’t have to worry about moving fast anymore. I just had to focus on getting Toothless to safety, and we could ride out the arrow’s effects until he could fly again. Unfortunately, the Hunters were following us, meaning we’d have to hide and remain quiet… and hope they wouldn’t spot us. I’d made the mistake of not bringing a weapon with me this time around, and I was definitely starting to regret it, for obvious reasons.

Our landing really was more of a crash, but we managed to reach the island before the Hunters’ ship, meaning we’d be able to find a hiding spot. Toothless wouldn’t be able to walk very far, but thankfully, there was a cave just beyond the edge of the forest we could hide out in for a while. I held tight onto Toothless and guided him toward the opening, occasionally picking him back up when he stumbled or straight-up collapsed. I took care not to accidentally stab Toothless with the arrow I’d already removed, and one we made it to the hide-out, I threw the thing against the stone.

“Oh, I am so sorry, bud. I am so sorry I got us into this,” I lamented, resting an arm against the top of his head. The contact made him groan in pain, but ultimately helped calm him a little. The voices of the Hunters passed by, causing the discontent brewing in my mind to start spilling over. “Oh, why didn’t I listen? Why didn’t I—what is wrong with me?”

If I’d actually accepted the offer for backup, I knew that was the point when Reign would have shot back with something sarcastic or biting, helping to lighten the mood without realizing it. But, instead, there was just Toothless’ groans and whines of pain, and the voices of Dragon Hunters growing ever-closer.

“Toothless, please,” I begged as his groans turned to roars, definitely alerting the Hunters to our location. “Okay. You stay still and keep quiet. I’m gonna buy us some time. I’ll be back for you. I promise.”

I didn’t really have a plan when I exited the cave, but taking on the Hunters definitely wasn’t an option. There could be a way for me to get rid of them for afar, but I’d need a lot of time, and I would have to make sure to, above all else, stay out of their sight. In the meantime, I threw some loose bushes in front of the mouth of the cave, weaving them together in a way so that they wouldn’t fall down or come apart. Thankfully, they also helped muffle some of the sound, leaving me feeling just confident enough to move away from where Toothless was hidden.

The best I had, at the moment, was throwing a rock over the heads of the two Hunters approaching the cave to distract them. They took the bait, which would allow me to get away, but the moment I turned around, my foot pressed down on a twig, snapping it in half. As my heart hammered in my ears with panic, I hoped that they hadn’t heard it, but after a second of processing, they whipped around and stared right at me, raising their weapons.

“After him!”

Adrenaline pushed me up onto my feet and caused me to run into the depths of the forest, bobbing and weaving through trees in hopes I could lose them. Sure, the Hunters were stronger, and they had weapons, but maybe, just _maybe_ , I’d be able to move faster.

Those hopes were quickly dashed when one of the Hunters started to catch up to me, mere inches away when I turned to glance back. A gasp forced itself out of my mouth, and though I kept running, I fully expected to feel the pain of a weapon piercing my shoulder, or even my head. It took me a second to realize that never came, and strangely, when I looked back, I saw the Hunter face-down on the dirt. I tried to just pass it off as him tripping over something and kept going.

Unfortunately, that led me straight to a group of Hunters, stopping just short before they spotted me. I managed to hide behind a tree until they walked away, but the second I relaxed, a strange ‘thump’ sounded behind the bushes across from me, causing me to panic again and take off running. Somehow, I’d managed to end up right back with that same group I’d just run into, and there was no way around them, so I just had to duck behind some bushes and wait them out.

“We think they got away, sir,” one of the Hunters informed the Captain.

“They didn’t get away,” he insisted. “I saw the dragon go down myself. Gather more men and double back. And check the caves! We’re not leaving until we find the Rider and that Night Fury.”

I waited until their voices and footsteps had retreated for a long while before I moved again, taking the long route back to the cave where I’d hidden Toothless. Thankfully, the bushes remained undisturbed, and when I pushed a few aside and slid back into the dark cover, Toothless was still there, laying on the ground.

“Hey,” I cooed, rushing to my dragon’s side. “How you doing?” Sadly, it was no longer safe for him to stay here, so I’d have to move him to another hiding spot. “You think you can stand up, bud?” He groaned, throwing his head slightly. “Come on, let’s try to get you up. What do you say, huh?”

When I pulled on his saddle, Toothless resisted slightly, causing me to nearly drop him. He continued to just flop back down as I tried to help him up, ticking down the time we had to get out of here.

“Come on, no, no, it’s okay. I got you, Toothless,” I assured him, trying to coax him into attempting to stand. “It’s okay, bud.” He actually tried to get on his feet this time, but he was too unstable, so he just ended up falling right back down. “Oh, come on. Think, Hiccup. Think.”

Before I got the chance to come up with some sort of alternative plan, the voices of the Hunters filtered in from outside, meaning we were officially trapped. Though I tried my best not to panic, they were getting a little too close, and Toothless had begun to roar and groan again, this time louder than the last.

“No, no, no, Toothless!” I hissed, pulling on his saddle again in a last-ditch effort to get him up. “You gotta be quiet, bud.” Toothless threw his head against the stone, giving up.

“Hey, over here!”

That was it. I’d run out my clock. The Hunters had definitely heard Toothless, and neither of us had any way to defend ourselves. The only thing between my dragon and those that wanted to hurt him… was me. And, although I had absolutely no weapons, I wasn’t about to just give up.

“Okay.” I got to my feet and stood down the entrance of the cave, waiting for the fight. “If they want to get you, Toothless, they’re gonna have to go through me.” As a last measure of defense, I grabbed a rock.

Right as their shadows closed in on the bushes, their bodies collapsed to the ground, accompanied by cries of surprise and blows landing against armor. Whatever the Hunters were fighting didn’t let up until they’d been knocked completely unconscious, and after a moment of complete silence, it started to pull the bushes aside. My grip tensed around the rock in my hand as the streams of sunlight momentarily blinded me, hiding whatever had entered the cave. It wasn’t until I heard the voice that my blood ran cold.

“Hello, Hiccup.”

Sure enough, once my eyes adjusted, I was met with the sight of a tall man with shaved and scruffy red hair, and the same green eyes as our own Dragon’s Edge resident.

“Dagur,” I gasped, confused. For a moment, I forgot who he was, given that he’d just taken down the Hunters that were about to discover us, but the moment he took a step closer, I tensed again. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Toothless!”

My dragon growled and tried to get to his feet, but the second he managed to stand up, his eyes went wide and he collapsed right back down. Not exactly what I’d been hoping for, but I could still take on Dagur on my own.

“Easy, brother.” I lunged forward and swung my arm, attempting to hit him with the stone. Dagur lunged out of the way of the attack, but I just popped back up again and swung my other hand out to strike his face. “I’m not here to hurt you!”

His words fell on deaf ears. Once I managed to actually land a blow, Dagur took advantage of my second of hesitation, grabbing onto my arm and pulling me into a choke hold. Panicked, I began to struggle and push on him, desperately attempting to get out of this.

“I’m here to help,” he insisted. “Seriously, you need to calm down.”

Without even a bit of difficulty, he managed to drag me out of the cave, and only once we were out in the open did he throw me to the ground. Immediately, I sprang to my feet, ready to try and pin him down, when my eyes flickered over the downed Hunters, all lying unconscious on the grass. I paused for just a moment, staring at the scene and remembering what I’d heard not long ago.

“You?” This didn’t make any sense, but there weren’t any dragons around, meaning he was really the only candidate.

“Plenty of times to answer all your Hiccupy questions later,” he chuckled, remaining strangely docile. “Right now, we need to move your dragon before these guys wake up. Or you can handle them yourself. Hmm?”

Although I hated to admit it, Dagur was right. The Hunters had found our current hiding place, and even if they didn’t go in themselves, they’d no doubt get their captain and the others in their fleet and surround us. I needed a new place for him to sit things out. Though I was reluctant to even let Dagur within a ten-mile radius of Toothless, I’d already proved I couldn’t move him on my own.

For the time being, Dagur wasn’t trying to hurt neither Toothless, nor myself, and he handled my dragon with a certain gentleness I would’ve expected from either of his sisters, but definitely not him. Staring Dagur right in the face without him taunting me or trying to run a sword through me definitely still didn’t feel real. Something about it just didn’t feel right.

“That’s a boy, Hiccup.” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Don’t need encouragement,” I shot back. Suddenly, Toothless appeared to get some of his senses back, and upon realizing who was guiding his tail, he snarled and stopped short.

“Hi there,” Dagur greeted casually, completely brushing off the fact Toothless looked ready to attack. “Oh, come on. If I was gonna harm you, don’t you think I would’ve done it by now?”

“I don’t know. You’re pretty crafty,” I stated as the three of us started to move again. Dagur contemplated what I’d said for a minute, then smiled.

“Hmm. Crafty. Thank you, Hiccup. I appreciate the kind words.” He hesitated, his mind catching up with him again. “They were kind, right?”

“You are so weird,” I groaned, shaking my head.

My words must have struck something in him. Out of nowhere, Dagur went from calm and helpful to seething with rage. I flinched as he removed a knife from his belt and chucked it in my direction, just nearly missing my ear. It wasn’t until I glanced back to see where the knife had landed that I realized he was actually just trying to disarm a dragon trap.

“You’re welcome.” He offered me a thumbs-up when I looked back at him. Truthfully, I was still just trying to process the fact he’d actually helped in making sure none of us would be harmed. Still a little dumbfounded, I hiked Toothless’ head back up and started to move again. “Dragons are a little heavier than they look.”

Dagur’s attempts at small-talk were ever-persistent, even if I just let them fall flat. There was just something strange about hearing him speak to me when it wasn’t an insult or an announcement that he was about to attack. The only time he ever gave off even the impression of still being the old Dagur was when he had thrown that knife, and even then, he was just trying to help me out. Everything we’d seen from him suggested he was cemented in his ways, but this… it was the most elaborate attempt at a trap I’d seen so far.

“Wait here,” he commanded, letting go of Toothless and running behind a set of bushes. He offered absolutely no hint as to what exactly he was doing, but Toothless and I really weren’t in a position where we could do anything but follow his word. The two of us waited for him to speak up again, and I just hoped he hadn’t led us all the way out here just to leave us exposed. “We’re good. Come.”

For the moment, I left Toothless behind, wanting to make sure he wouldn’t be led into some sort of scenario where he could be captured, or worse, killed. I fully expected Hunters to be swarming on the other side of the line of bushes, but what I found definitely fell into the ‘much worse’ category: Dagur stood below me, gesturing his arms to a violent waterfall, rushing down into the lagoon below with fast and impressive force. From the looks of it, there was no way around this, and no way down that didn’t involve dropping to our deaths. A mixture of rage and disappointment consumed me the longer I stared at the water.

“Oh, I knew it!” I cried, slapping my forehead against my hand. “What was I thinking?”

“Hiccup, this isn’t a trap.” Dagur’s words really had the opposite effect. “Look. There.”

“What? What are you—“

“Hiccup! Just look!” There was the Dagur I’d become so familiar with. The way he seized up and started to scream really just brought back unpleasant memories. “Please? I’ll stay right here.”

His loud insistence didn’t do much to reassure me, but really, what other choice did I have? I wouldn’t dare step down to the ledge Dagur was on, so I just moved to the end of my own and crouched down, looking toward the waterfall. I’d expected it to be some sort of distraction, but impressively enough, there was a cave hidden back behind the streams of water, completely invisible from almost every other angle. Even from where I stood, it was difficult to make out the opening. It was the perfectly place to hide Toothless for a while… which only served to make all this that much stranger.

Carefully, Dagur and I went back for Toothless and guided him down to the ledge where the cave was, allowing Dagur to take the lead on this. Because we were behind a waterfall, some spray had ended up on the stone, making it slippery—a fact I became extremely aware of when my foot slid out from beneath me slightly.

“Be careful now,” Dagur warned. “It can be a bit—“

Before Dagur got the chance to finish his sentence, my foot hit the edge of the cliff, causing the delicate stone to crumble beneath me. I had only fallen a couple of feet, when Dagur’s hand caught my own, in another weird feat of the day. Despite his strength, the position the catch had put him in limited his ability to help me up, forcing Toothless to lumber over and try his best to pull Dagur and I back to safety. Just as Dagur completely slipped off the edge, Toothless managed to catch Dagur’s foot in his mouth, and with a bit of force, flung us back up onto the stone. All of us remained still for a while, attempting to process and recover the full caliber of what just happened, and in that time, the second strangest thing I’d ever heard came from Dagur’s mouth.

“Sorry about that. My fault. I should’ve warned you earlier. I’ll try to do better.”

I shook my head as Dagur pushed himself to his feet.

“And I have officially stepped into an alternate archipelago.”

With a limited amount of difficulty, Dagur and I managed to complete the journey, settling Toothless down in the hidden cave. It wasn’t until I’d deemed Toothless was safe for now that I noticed personal belongings and firewood sprinkled all over the place, indicating Dagur had been on this island a lot longer than just the few hours of today. Odd...

Dagur sparking up the fire turned my attention back to him. He moved so casually throughout the space, picking up a bucket and a set of sleeping mats that he’d somehow managed to acquire. Eventually, he noticed my staring, and just shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah, I tend to have a lot of time on my hands these days,” he informed me, setting the bucket down next to Toothless. Once he crouched down, he started to clean off some of the dirt from Toothless’ scales. “Here you go, little buddy. It’s important to keep the mind sharp.” The way he cackled caused me to step back a bit, still wary that he was going to snap. Strangely, he just went through a short episode, then fell right back into the same Dagur he’d been this entire time on the island. “Yes, answers. I did tell you those were _en route_.”

I sat on a log directly across from him, remaining silent but staring as I waited for him to explain.

“Well, after I came to the unfortunate realization that I was completely expendable while part of the Dragon Hunters and under the command of Viggo Grimborn…” Dagur’s hands immediately balled into fists. “Oh, I would’ve loved to have seen the look on his face as I drove a…” His anger almost immediately melted away, and he took a deep breath, bringing him back to this magic calm state he’d somehow managed to acquire. “Have you ever tried that? It’s cathartic. I used to think that the only deep breaths were the last ones. How’s Heather?”

His question caused me to stutter, unable to bring myself to respond at first. We hadn’t seen Heather in months, and Reign hadn’t received so much as a Terrible Terror mail from her sister, leading all of us to believe she no longer wanted to be found.

“Yeah, you know, Heather, she’s okay,” I lied, hoping he wouldn’t notice the way I stuttered.

“Good, good. And her dragon? What was it? Windshower?” I found myself laughing at his misstep.

“Windshear,” I corrected.

“Right. Sorry.” He went back to tending to Toothless for a moment, before he asked the question that made me the most nervous. “And how’s Reign been doing? Everything okay with my other sister?”

Hearing Dagur call Reign his sister in a way that wasn’t taunting or sardonic wasn’t something I took lightly. A while back, she had mentioned something about Dagur asking the Hunters not to hurt her, and him apologizing after hitting her while we were dealing with the Skrill, and now he wanted to know if she was okay? Those weren’t the stepping stones of a coincidence.

“She’s… been good. Surprisingly calm and optimistic since the run-in with Viggo,” I answered honestly, feeling some of my inhibitions with her brother melt away. “We’re doing good.”

“Excellent. I feel bad that I’ve missed out on time with her just because we were on different sides of things.” A sad look crossed his face for a moment, backing up his words, but he quickly shook his head to dismiss it. “Anyway, after that learning experience, I drifted at sea for quite some time, then shipwrecked here. I’ve been alone on this island for months. You know, it’s amazing what a near-death experience and hours upon hours, upon hours, upon hours, upon hours… upon hours will do to the mind, body, and soul, Hiccup.”

And there came the creeping unease again.

“I mean, you should try it sometime.” In spite of myself, I laughed. “What’s so funny?”

“You. This,” I scoffed. “I mean, I knew you were crazy, but this takes the cake.”

Dagur shot up, his eyes widening with a wild fury I sometimes recognized in his sisters in the heat of battle. However, that didn’t make it any less startling.

“I am not…” He caught himself, and took a deep breath. “…crazy. But I do understand your skepticism.”

“Dagur, why in the name of Thor should I believe a word you say?” I demanded.

“You shouldn’t.” He snapped a twig in half and threw it onto the fire. “I don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.” Dagur tried to get Toothless to drink water, but he refused, likely given the source. While he was distracted with that, I took the opportunity to check on his tail. “He’s not looking good.”

Typically, by this point, the wound should’ve stopped bleeding, but I could still see a few drops rising to the surface and sliding off onto his black scales, standing out as a prominent reminder he was still very much in danger.

“He’s never been hit with one of these. I don’t know, maybe… Night Furies react differently.” I tried my best not to focus on the fact that the Dragon Eye likely would’ve had the answers we needed.

“I never liked those dragon root arrows,” Dagur sighed. “Seemed like cheating to me. I hate cheaters.” Almost immediately, his brain switched topics. “There is an antidote for this, you know. I saw Ryker and his men make it. I can give you the ingredients and together make the antidote to save your glorious Night Fury. Unless you want to take the chance of him surviving on his own?”

Unfortunately, I was out of options. The Hunters were still on the island, meaning Toothless and I had to get out of here as soon as possible. So, the only thing I could do was accept the sword Dagur threw to me and follow him, and hope that this wouldn’t end with Toothless getting poisoned or myself getting killed.

“You may need that. They’re still out there.”

I never thought I’d have to trust Dagur with my dragon’s life, but this day proved to be something completely out of the ordinary. I checked on Toothless one last time, assuring him that I was going to make sure he’d be okay, then reluctantly followed Dagur out of the cave and down onto the world below the waterfall. He searched for quite a while, eyeing the ground carefully. For now, I chose to sheath the sword he’d given me, but it was perched in a way where I could pull it out on a moment’s notice. We hadn’t strayed that far from our point of origin, when Dagur dropped onto the dirt, getting in real close to a green plant coming up from the ground.

“Bitterweed. That’s the first ingredient.” He leaned in and sniffed the thing. “Looks like this, but darker.” Once he’d made his assessment, he pushed himself up and started to search much higher places for the desired plant.

“So, what caused this new Dagur?” I inquired as I leaned down and picked one of the plants, analyzing it carefully to make sure I’d find the right plant.

“Told you. Near-death experience and a lot of time to think.”

“About what?” Dagur let out a long sigh.

“Well, when you only care about yourself, life is simple. Your actions are clear. Consequences? Who cares. When that changes…”

It suddenly became clear to me what exactly spurred on his different mindset. But, if he was right… how long had he been questioning the life he’d led?

“Reign and Heather?”

“They’re blood, Hiccup,” he confirmed. “Which makes both of them even closer than you and me.”

I chose to ignore that comment, especially because Dagur’s gaze immediately shifted to a point behind me, bringing my attention to a single purple plant buried in the bushes. It appeared easy enough, but when Dagur reached out to touch it, a growl sounded from in front of him, and in a split second, a Changewing revealed itself, roaring at the two of us and threatening to spit acid. I stepped forward and stood a little taller, trying my best to intimidate the dragon, when Dagur started to make a whistling sound that startled the predatory dragon. He made the sound one more time, and the Changewing went back into its camouflage, but not before slinking away, completely neutralized.

“What?” I remained tense for another moment, but once it registered that Dagur had managed to scare off a Changewing, I blinked at him in disbelief.

“A little something I picked up along the way.”

With the dragon taken care of, Dagur plucked the Bitterweed out of the ground and put it into one of the pouches on his belt, assuring that it would be safe. Neither of us wasted any more time addressing what just happened, instead continuing our trek through the woods for the next ingredient we’d need. Dagur didn’t say anything for a while, until we probably got closer to the item’s location.

“Okay, now we need the branch of a Fire Fern,” he informed me. “It’s the long, red plant underneath the big Elm tree.”

The moment he gave the description, my eyes fell on the exact plant we were looking for. Dagur had walked right past it, meaning he’d likely just gotten lost in his own mind, so I turned and decided to grab what we needed, that way we could move on.

“Just make sure you don’t—“

Dagur’s warning came too little, too late. I managed to pull off a piece of the Fire Fern, but the second my skin made contact with it, I felt a thousand needles stab themselves through my skin, immediately causing my palm to turn red. Whatever was on the surface of that plant had managed to burn me.

“—touch it with your bare hands.”

Dagur huffed in exasperation as I continued to hiss and wince in pain, unable to really focus on anything else. He dragged me out toward the water and immediately stuck my hand in, holding it under there to alleviate the effects.

“Keep it in the water,” he instructed. “Hey! Next ingredient, fresh water.” Dagur laughed a little as he scooped up the liquid into the jar he’d brought, before focusing back on me. “So, you wanna tell me why you’re out here on your own?”

“Not really,” I dismissed, bitterness rising in my throat. “Let’s just say you’re not the only one who changed after Viggo Grimborn.” Something in Dagur’s face shifted, almost resembling concern.

“Hmm. That stuff can kill you from the inside, Hiccup. Revenge. Anger. Obsession. Trust me. I know. It can make you do things you never thought you were capable of. Cause you to take chances, make mistakes. If that doesn’t end you, it’ll eat away at you slowly.”

His words sunk deep into me, feeling like they were infiltrating my blood and bones. He brushed everything off so casually, sticking the lid on the jar and just shrugging his shoulders at me, ready to move on to our next ingredient. Taking that as the cue, I removed my hand from the water and followed behind him, remembering that ultimately, this was all for Toothless. And although the thought of getting away from Dagur had been a motivator for a while… that was changing now.

Dagur finally stopped in front of a tall rock, pointing up at a bunch of purple flowers on the top.

“The final ingredient: Purple Oleander.”

Upon hearing the name, my eyebrows flew up in the air, concerned.

“Are you sure?” I asked cautiously.

“Yes, I’m sure. Purple Oleander.” He sounded assertive and confident, but I questioned his knowledge of what would or wouldn’t harm a dragon. “Do you always nag like this?” The moment my facial expression darkened, Dagur backed off. “Kidding. Sense of humor? No? Sense of humor? Hmm?” I got a little closer to the flower, still doubtful of Dagur.

“Blue Oleander can kill a dragon. How… How is purple any different?”

“Well, for one thing—“ I managed to read his mind.

“Please don’t say, ‘it’s purple.’” Dagur smirked at me.

“I was going to say ‘nature.’ It’s always a great mystery, Hiccup. Take Heather, Reign, and I. We’re brother and sisters, and yet all three of us are very different.” That wasn’t a great argument, but at this rate, what other choice did I have? This entire scenario was a demonstration of my hand being forced.

“I must be out of my mind to go along with any of this.”

In spite of all that, I started to climb up the rock, heading for this flower that could either save Toothless or poison him—which were pretty extreme odds. I didn’t think to look behind me, more focused on the climb and not falling, until I heard a fist strike someone, and Dagur declaring that something ‘felt good.’ Making sure that I had a good grip and wouldn’t fall, I turned my head just in time to see Dagur beating on a Dragon Hunter on the ground, while another ran at him from behind.

“Dagur!”

That caught his attention and alerted him to the aggressor behind him, allowing him just enough time to roll out of the way and elbow the Hunter to the ground. He snatched the mace from his hands in the process, and I watched in horror as he raised the weapon over his head and readied it to come down on the Hunter’s chest, which would no doubt kill him. However, right before he swung, Dagur closed his eyes, took a breath, and lowered the mace down by his side. Though I was in shock, I plucked a couple of the flowers from the top of the rock and jumped down, flicking my eyes between the Hunter and Dagur as I approached them.

“I told you, I’ve changed.”

Immediately after saying that, Dagur grabbed onto my shoulder and shoved me to the ground, causing the anger and annoyance I’d been suppressing to come shooting up suddenly. I propped myself up on my elbows and glared at him, failing to notice the way his face crumpled in pain.

“What was that for?” I demanded.

Dagur’s shoulders slumped slightly, revealing an arrow sticking straight out of it. I gasped as I stared at it, while Dagur just sort of hummed in acknowledgement, the discomfort on his face completely melting away to reveal the shock.

“Stuck right in there,” he slurred, “look at the way it’s…”

Before he got the chance to finish his sentence, Dagur’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed to the ground. I stood and tried to help him back onto his feet, but another Hunter jumped out from the bushes, forcing me to think fast. I had to abandon Dagur for him to stand a chance, and without really using my brain, I reached for the first thing by my hand and stuck it out… striking a Hunter right in his stomach.

I stared in horror as the Hunter cried out in pain, then collapsed onto the grass. His chest rose and fell in ragged bursts, indicating he was alive, but just barely. And I had been responsible for that.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Toothless was still back in the cave, unconscious and vulnerable, and now Dagur had been knocked out by the same thing—something I hadn’t seen before. He was quite heavy, but I managed to drag him back to the cave and set him down against a sleeping mat he had. Though I’d never removed an arrow from someone myself, I’d watched Reign and Astrid do it enough times to understand how to do it. Thankfully, I managed to get the thing out without breaking the hilt or the head, then I bandaged up his shoulder and set it into a sling made out of a blanket.

With Toothless and Dagur both still asleep, I had no other choice but to attempt and make this antidote myself, despite the fact I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. Once the water got boiling over the fire, I figured I’d just start putting in ingredients based on the order we got them. The Bitterweed boiled down slowly, giving me enough time to figure out how to get the Fire Fern leaves out of Dagur’s bag and into the pot without touching them, then finally, I threw in one of the Purple Oleander flowers.

It was then that Dagur began to stir in his sleep, before he gasped and shot up, panting slightly. As I made my way over, the fear faded away, and he started to laugh a little bit when he looked up at me.

“Whoo!” he exclaimed. “Those were some crazy dreams.” I crouched down and made sure his pupils were back to a normal size before smiling at him.

“You’ll live,” I stated, echoing his words from earlier. “I’ve never seen anyone react to the arrows like that before.”

“You’ve seen someone get shot with one of these before?” I quickly dropped back into being unamused.

“When you shot your sister—ironically in the exact same shoulder—she just looked like she was in a lot of pain and managed to get back without collapsing.” Dagur’s cheeks turned as red as his hair.

“Oh, right…” he muttered. “Well, Reign’s a pretty strong woman. I’m not surprised she pushed through it.” I nodded, agreeing with him completely. Dagur’s eyes flickered down to his arm for a moment, taking note of the sling now wrapped around it. “You… did this? For me? I don’t know what to say. I mean, nobody has ever…”

“Dagur, it was the least I could do,” I assured him, actually offering him a genuine smile. “Think of it as a payback for, well, everything.”

As he returned the expression, the pot began to boil, sizzling and bubbling up over the edge of the cauldron. Dagur managed to get up to his feet and leaned over the pot, leaving me to follow him. He cocked his head as he looked down at the mixture assessing it as carefully as he could with just his eyes.

“I was just about to give it to him.” He leaned in a little closer, taking note of something that wasn’t quite right.

“Needs more purple. Definitely.” Dagur reached into his bag and put another flower into the mixture, turning it a bright, almost terrifying purple. “There. That should do it.”

I still wasn’t quite sure about this, but I picked up the cauldron and set it in front of Toothless, trying to urge him to drink. My dragon, however, took one whiff of the concoction and backed away, snarling at it. Growing more suspicious, I threw a questioning glance at Dagur, waiting for him to explain.

“Hey, we can always wait for the effect of the arrows to wear off and hope they don’t find us before then. But that could take quite a while. It’s up to you, Hiccup. But I would suggest you lose the paranoia. It’s a terrible existence. And it’s not you.”

Once again, he had a point. Saving Toothless was more important than the past Dagur was proving he’d moved on from; whether all of me wanted to admit it or not, he had changed. So, taking a leap of faith, I forced Toothless’ mouth open and poured the purple liquid down his throat.

“There you go, bud. It’s okay,” I coaxed. “It’s okay.”

Suddenly, Toothless shot up to his feet, his pupils widening. For a moment, I thought he was back to normal, until he started to snarl and roar in pain and list back and forth—he now ended up worse than he’d been after he was shot by the arrow.

“Toothless? Are you okay? Toothless!”

With one last cry into the air, he collapsed onto the stone once again, his eyes slamming shut. Terrified, I dropped down next to him and placed my hands on him, trying to shake him back awake and make sure nothing worse happened.

“What did you do?” I growled, staring down Dagur. He merely shrunk back and remained silent, refusing to own up for his actions, and I turned back to my dragon. “Oh, come on. Come on. Stay with me, bud!”

Dagur finally attempted to approach, but I wasn’t having it now. He’d strung me along this whole time, making me believe he not only knew what he was doing, but that he genuinely wanted to help Toothless get better. Instead, he’d hurt Toothless further, and I now feared he wouldn’t pull through to get out of here.

“You stay away from him!” I screamed, my words loud and clear over the roar of the waterfall.

“Hiccup, I didn’t know,” he explained hurriedly. “You have to believe me.”

Completely overwhelmed with rage, I lunged and Dagur, throwing the both of us out of the cave and over the edge of the cliff. Admittedly, it wasn’t my smartest move, especially considering it sent the two of us into the rushing rapids below, turning us into ragdolls who were mere servants to the current. On a couple of occasions, I managed to surface or grab onto Dagur, only to be pulled back under the glassy death chamber or broken away by a rock. It wasn’t until we reached the shore that I got my next chance, and the moment my feet hit that sand, something in my snapped again, and I found myself immediately able to jump on the source of my anger yet again.

“I’m gonna kill you!”

The second I lifted up one of my arms, Dagur grabbed onto it and used the leverage to flip me over, clamping his hands around my throat.

“I didn’t hurt your—“

And then, all of a sudden, he froze, save for raising his arms in surrender. It took me a moment to recognize what exactly he was doing, confirmed when I turned my head back to see the entire fleet of Dragon Hunters that had been tracking us pointing arrows at us, with the captain smirking as he thrust his sword right up in Dagur’s face.

As much as I wanted to struggle against them, I feared what they’d do if I did, and I didn’t know how I’d escape without a dragon, so I just gave up, allowing them to bind Dagur’s and my hands and drag us toward where they’d set up camp. The captain of the Hunter group kept up that determined swagger as he stared down at the two of us, bent to his mercy at the moment.

“We’re going to find that dragon,” he declared. “It’s only a matter of time. Why don’t you make it easier on everyone?” A few of the Hunters snickered, but I refused to relent in any way that I could. “Maybe this will burn a hole in your memory.”

The captain gestured for one of the Hunters to come over. At first, I thought they were maybe going to go for Dagur, if he even did actually betray them, but instead, he pulled me up by my arm and dragged me over to a fire, where a couple branding irons were being heated. I flinched and began to back my head up as much as I could, my heart hammering in my ears as the Hunter slowly brought the hot metal closer to my skin, threatening to melt it at any second.

“Now you’ll be part of the Dragon Hunters forever.”

Just before the Hunter brought the iron to my face, I heard the rustling of someone standing, and Dagur’s voice caused everyone to halt.

“Okay! Enough! Enough!” he shouted, distracting them. “I’ll take you to the Night Fury.”

“No, Dagur!” I countered. Despite what I’d said, the Hunter threw down the iron and forced me around, making me watch as the captain gathered up a couple more men before throwing me to the ground.

The moment he wasn’t surrounded, Dagur ran to me, crouching down just in front of me. I thought he was maybe going to help me up, but instead, he hovered his ropes over the fire until they burned away, allowing him to slam the two Hunters meant to be keeping an eye on us. One of their swords fell into his hands, so I held out my arms, giving him easier access to my ropes.

“Come on, come on, hurry, hurry, hurry!” I hissed.

Dagur glanced at me, then back at the Hunters coming toward us… and then shrugged his shoulders.

“Sorry, brother. You’d just slow me down.”

The Hunters focused their fire on the man running away as I got to my feet, watching him disappear with intense contempt.

“You’re a fake, Dagur! A fake! I hate you! You hear me? I hate you!”

He never even hesitated as he disappeared belong the line of shrubbery.

A couple of Hunters snatched up their weapons, readying themselves to catch up to him, but the captain stopped them, taking advantage of the fact that I was still there. Reluctantly, I walked along with them, but I absolutely refused to say anything about Toothless’ location, forcing them to just walk me back toward their ship. The very real possibility that I may never return back to Dragon’s Edge began to dawn on me, and I tried my best not to think about the things I wished I’d done.

“Last chance,” the captain taunted. “You wanna help that dragon? Help yourself?” I stood firm on my point, staring him down.

“I’ll die before I talk.”

“Then you shall die,” he laughed gleefully. “Viggo will see to that. Take him.”

Right as one of the Hunters started to push me toward the ship, I heard a familiar whizzing of air hitting a certain dragon’s scales. I turned my head back, just to make sure my thoughts were right, then walked along and pretended not to know what was coming, until I heard and felt the two plasma blasts hitting the sand beside the Hunters, sending them down against the sand and knocking them unconscious.

I laughed as Toothless looped up over my head, my jaw dropping when I noticed who the rider was controlling him. None other than Dagur himself had somehow managed to get Toothless to trust him and let him up on his back to control his tail. The two of them were working pretty well together, too, effortlessly taking down the Hunters aiming their crossbows right at them. The only time an arrow got close to them, Dagur managed to catch it with his bare hands and threw it to the ground, scaring the Hunter Captain to the point where he forced me onto the ground and held his sword up to my neck. Maybe another pair would have hesitated, but Toothless and Dagur just swooped down, and the former threw his temporary rider off his back and roared. Frightened, the Hunter Captain dropped his sword and went running toward the boat, attempting to escape as quickly as possible.

Finally, the Hunters were no longer an issue, and Toothless excitedly bounded up to me and nuzzled my arms, flooding me with relief.

“Bud!” I sighed. “It’s good to see you, too.”

Dagur approached the two of us as I continued to pet him, offering affection even with my hands still bound.

“I have no idea how you stomach that,” he groaned, one hand moving to his stomach.

The last bit of freedom finally came within reach when Dagur severed the bonds keeping my hands together. Despite what happened earlier, I could see that he had, in fact, changed for the better, at least for the time being. Allowing bygones to be bygones for now, I extended a hand to him, exchanging a handshake before I focused back on my dragon.

“Oh, Toothless! It’s good to have you back! Now, what do you say we show him how it’s done?”

Toothless growled excitedly, so I jumped up onto his back and shifted my foot to open his tail fin to catch the right amount of air. The two of us shot straight up toward the sky, looping around once before setting our sights on the Hunter ship. On my command, Toothless performed a barrel roll, sending multiple blasts against the wooden deck, causing the Hunters on board to jump overboard. I caught a glimpse of the Hunter Captain just out of the corner of my eye, and we chased him until we reached the line of trees, not wanting to risk Toothless getting hurt again.

“They’re so much tougher when they have you chained up, huh, bud?”

With the Hunters taken care of, I turned Toothless back around and headed toward the beach, wanting to bid Dagur goodbye before we headed back to the Edge—where a wrath certainly awaited me. But, when we landed on the sand, I couldn’t find the man; he’d just disappeared.

“Wait. Where’d he go?”

It was then I noticed the Hunter ship had departed. Most likely, Dagur had used it to finally escape, and find some other island to live on for now. At least he’d be out of our hair for the time being.

Toothless purred and looked back at me as we started back for home, curious about what happened to the last member of our team for today.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “We owe him one. Besides, maybe he’ll get to Viggo before we do.”

By the time we reached the Edge again, the sun had set. I could see a mass of red hair pacing back and forth on the deck of the stables, joined by two blondes attempting to talk her down. Fishlegs noticed me first, pointing to Toothless and I as we landed.

Reign stopped dead in her tracks, staring at me with fiery eyes the entire time I climbed off my dragon. I braced myself, readying my mind for the lecture I knew I was about to get… but was caught off guard when I just felt her arms wrap tightly around me, and her head bury itself against my shoulder. Her breaths were fast and rapid, making me realize she’d been scared. That made me feel absolutely terrible, but when I returned the gesture and the two of us just stood like that for a while, some of it alleviated.

“I didn’t know what happened to you,” she whispered, finally looking up and placing her hands on my cheeks. “I thought you and Toothless were…” Reign trailed off, unwilling to even entertain the end of that sentence anymore.

When I reached up to hold her hands, she noticed the red markings on one of mine, and she ran her finger over the burns, eyebrows raised.

“What happened here?” I shrugged and leaned my forehead against hers.

“I touched a Fire Fern,” I laughed. “Turns out, they burn your hands when you touch them.” Reign chuckled at first, but my words finally caught up with her, and the quizzical look returned.

“Fire Ferns grow pretty far out.” Of course she’d know about the locations of the dangerous plants. “Why’d you run across one of those?”

“Toothless and I had to camp out for a while,” I answered quickly. She took that, thankfully, then reached up, kissing me.

Given that I’d thought I wouldn’t ever get to do this again, this one felt more special than any of the others.

“I’m sure you’re hungry,” she finally muttered. “Astrid and I saved some of the food for you, if you want it now.”

I slung an arm around her shoulders and walked alongside her to the clubhouse.

For now, I figured it best not to mention the person that helped me get back to her. I’d have to thank him for that later, somehow.

Then again, something told me knowing his sister and I were happy would be enough this time.


	29. Crash Course (Reign)

Loud sonic booms, plasma blasts, and the earth-rattling explosions of the ignition of Zippleback gas. From the outside, it sounded like we were fending off a Hunter attack, or maybe we’d found a ship and were freeing the dragons trapped below deck. But, instead, we’d spent our entire day chipping away at the cliffs on the opposite end of Dragon’s Edge from where we lived. Large chunks of rock went tumbling onto the ground below us. Fishlegs and Meatlug made sure to swoop in at the right moment and catch whatever one of us knocked down and move it to one of the many catapults we had lined up along the cliffside.

“So fast!” Fishlegs cheered as he and Meatlug zoomed past us again. “Good girl, Meatlug!”

Despite the fact they’d dropped the boulder Toothless had just shot down into the ocean, I couldn’t help but smile at the two of them.

I’d definitely noticed the way were overworking ourselves since Viggo had gotten his hands on the Dragon Eye. It was no secret Hiccup worried constantly about the next time we’d be attacked, and what would be taken from him. Some nights, he’d thrash in his sleep, mumbling things too rushed for me to understand, and when I finally woke him, he was no better; I would hold him for a long while, whispering words of comfort and running my hands through his hair and against his back, but when he finally went back to sleep, the nightmares just came running back to him again. There came nights when he wouldn’t sleep at all, instead spending the entire night working on fortifications we didn’t need or taking all the patrol shifts on the island. Though he didn’t know it, I never slept on those nights, only lying down to pretend I’d managed to find some sort of comfort when I heard his footsteps padding against the landing of our hut.

In moments when I was like this, I never considered what I was doing to him. I got so lost in the fear and the words my own mind spoke to me that I couldn’t even begin to fathom the consequences. But, at this point in my life, I was officially living it. I felt helpless as I watched him turn away and hide what I still knew existed, overwhelmingly anxious when he left for the night, consumed by the concern his health was slipping away from the habits he’d formed. I loved him too much to watch it happen, but nothing I had done would talk him down from the ledge he teetered on. I feared one wrong sentence or word would completely send him over the edge.

Pushing down tears brought on by the helpless weakness, I reached out and took his hand, trying my best to smile at him. When he squeezed mine back, it still felt the same as it always had: confident that everything would be fine—that, above all else, we still had each other to pull through this time. Though something in him had changed, made him angrier and quieter, nothing ever felt different with affection.

“Yeah, okay, shoot another one.”

I directed my attention toward the twins, who had officially stopped gathering boulders and were now sculpting the cliffside into their image.

Lovely.

“Little to the right,” Ruffnut directed, steering Barf’s head over to spill the gas in the right direction. “Now go down, down.” Once enough gas had been laid down, Belch released sparks, causing a deafening explosion.

Maybe I could’ve let what they were doing slide, but they weren’t actually making boulders big enough for us to use, meaning this entire thing was just wasting time.

“Hmm. What do you think?” Ruffnut inquired, looking to her brother.

“I think we need to chisel the jawlines more,” he answered, tilting his head to get a better look at what they’d made so far. “Make them more in and of our visage.”

“Agreed.”

I was just about to fly over and get them to focus, but thankfully, Snotlout came back to the group, boulders dangling from Hookfang’s claws, and approached the pair. It felt strange to be thankful for Snotlout stepping in, but lately, he’d been stepping up a lot more and actually taking some responsibility. I suppose something good came out of this time when we all knew Hiccup was losing it a little bit.

“Will you guys do something that’s actually important?” he snapped, maybe a bit too harsh.

“What could possibly be more important than this?” Tuffnut thrust his arms out toward the sculpture, acting like it was some artistic marvel.

“I’m sick of this,” Snotlout groaned. “If these clowns aren’t gonna pull their weight—“

“Hey, boyo. Never talk to a girl about her weight,” Ruff scoffed.

“No wonder he can’t land a girlfriend. Am I right?”

At this point, the work had come to a complete halt, despite the original purpose of Snotlout going over to the twins. I could feel Hiccup’s hand tensing in my own, his frustration mounting as he watched them idle around and listened to their conversation. Fearing that he would start yelling at them, I released my hand from his and gently pat his arm, silently offering to go talk to them instead. Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins all directed their attention to me immediately, their eyes going wide.

“Guys, let’s get these catapults loaded before the sun goes down?” Though I made it sound like a suggestion, there really was no wiggle room there.

Before anyone got the chance to talk back or protest, the trees in the forest just to our left cracked loudly and tumbled down, starting a sort of domino effect. None of us were over there, meaning no one from our chaotic team could’ve done it, but I couldn’t think of any dragons remaining on the Edge that could do it, either. Most of our population consisted of little dragons that definitely weren’t strong enough to knock down the towering trees that made up our forests.

Hiccup made his way over, curious about the noise, when the ground shook with heavy footsteps.

“What was that?” Astrid questioned, leaning over Stormfly to try and get a better look at the world below the trees.

“I don’t know, but it’s crumbling my eyelids.” I rolled my eyes at the twins’ fixation.

The footsteps’ intensity now shook through the air, causing the dragons to start flapping their wings harder and squawk, growl, and grumble, clearly frightened by whatever was coming closer. It never bode well when the dragons were afraid of whatever waited beyond what we could see.

“Something’s coming towards us!” Hiccup cried, alerting Fishlegs to the potential danger.

“Something big!” I echoed.

The seven of us turned and started to flee, heading through the opposite end of the forest to get back to our base quickly. Whatever was below turned and started to follow us, but we would likely be able to outfly it with how fast our dragons had become. Unfortunately, Stormfly and Hookfang were carrying the heavy bags of boulders, meaning they were _significantly_ slower than normal. Panicking, I turned back to the pair, watching as the dragons started to dip down from all the weight.

“Astrid! Snotlout! Cut your boulders loose!” I instructed, hoping we had enough of a supply by the catapults that losing these ones wouldn’t really make a difference.

Astrid immediately whipped out one of her knives and severed the ropes tied around Stormfly’s body, but Snotlout struggled to undo the knots, claiming the ropes were tangled. Hearing that, Hookfang attempted to help out, but the effort went about as well as his help went: his claws ended up getting tangled in the ropes, and the two of them went crashing onto the dirt. The clouds of dust that kicked up paled in comparison to the large plumes coming up from whatever was now threateningly close to them.

I feared what would happen to them when the creature finally burst through the line of trees, but the panic quickly faded when the creature revealed itself to be a towering, yellow dragon that we’d dealt with before. Still, it made no sense why she was here, rather than on her own island.

“The Fireworm Queen?” Hiccup questioned as he flew up next to me.

“I pretended to be scared so the dragons wouldn’t be,” Snotlout chuckled nervously, still trembling from the release of the shock.

Hookfang reared up on his hind legs, with Snotlout still facing backwards on his saddle, and nuzzled the Fireworm Queen, offering his respect while still honoring the bond they’d formed back when Snotlout and Hookfang were saved by her and her venom.

The way the Queen thrashed her head and screeched definitely created concern, something backed up by the deep gashes and scars on her chin and face. Those sorts of marks were a little too familiar…

“Hiccup, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I turned to look at him, watching as his gaze lowered the longer he stared at the marks.

“Yeah. Something’s off.”

“What is she doing way out here, away from her island?”

“I’m not sure.”

Hiccup and I landed our dragons in front of the frantic Fireworm Queen, who growled at us the moment she saw two dragons she wasn’t as fond of. Hiccup stuck his hand up toward her, trying his best to soothe her anxious state.

“Whoa, no, no, no. Take it easy, girl,” he cooed, getting her to at least stop her thrashing. “Just trying to figure out what’s going on.”

The Fireworm Queen turned around and started to scuttle back toward the forest, then scampered back over toward our group, cocking her head and waiting for us to figure out the information she was trying to relay. Hookfang and the Queen communicated in their usual screeching, but nothing about their body language really gave anything away. Still, the way she paced back and forth between the trees and us didn’t really leave much room for error.

“Being a dragon expert, I can tell she wants Hookfang to follow her,” Snotlout stated confidently, crossing his arms smugly against his chest. I decided to let the statement go, allowing everyone to focus on the problem in front of us.

“Follow her? Where? Why?” Fishlegs asked, hovering behind the pair on Meatlug.

“Maybe it has something to do with these.” I pointed toward the three scars forming on her chin. There was pretty much no doubt in our group’s mind where those came from, and we all understood that meant we were likely already running out of time.

“Dragon Hunters?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say she needs help defending herself,” Hiccup sighed.

“And, since the Fireworm Queen and Hookfang have history, he’s the only dragon she trusts,” I concluded, putting the pieces of dragon knowledge I had together.

“Well, if she’s looking for backup, she came to the right dragon.” The way Snotlout leaned forward against Hookfang’s horns demonstrated a protective sort of determination I hadn’t seen in him before. Sure, he was always ready for the fight, but there was something different about it this time. The recklessness had completely disappeared. “Those Hunters want to mess with the Queen? They’re gonna have to go through me and Hookfang. Come on, Your Highness. Lead the way.”

Without a second thought, the Fireworm Queen took off, with Hookfang and Snotlout trailing close behind her. The rest of us just sat there, blinking at the point on the horizon where they had disappeared, before we decided it might be best to follow them as backup. Yes, the Fireworm Queen definitely only trusted Hookfang, but if there were Hunters, there was no way Snotlout and Hookfang could take them on alone. It took a bit for us to catch up, and once we did, Toothless and Shriek sped ahead of the rest of the group, trying to talk some sense into Snotlout.

“Snotlout, wait up!” Hiccup called, getting the pair to slow down slightly.

“I told you, Hiccup, she came for me and Hookfang. We got this.” There was nothing in what he said that offered any reassurance.

“No one is doubting your level of ‘got’, Snotlout,” Hiccup countered. “But if Viggo and the Hunters are here, you might need a little back-up.” Thankfully, that got him to cave a little bit.

“Okay. But remember, you’re back-up, and we’re… front-down, which is the opposite of back-up.” I snickered at Snotlout’s newfound term for the person taking the lead in an operation. “Let’s go, Hookfang! Come on!”

Fireworm Island finally came into view, so I expected to see ships and projectiles firing at the stone, or maybe Hunters rushing into the caverns to attack and capture the little Fireworms inside. Instead, the surface of the water remained still, only moving with the usual ebb and flow of the occasional wave crashing onto the shores, and the world was nearly silent, save for the noise being made by the dragons or us. Suspicious, I pulled back toward the rest of the group, prompting Hiccup and Toothless to follow.

“You guys feel that?” I asked, turning to look back at the rest of our reinforcements. The rest of them looked to me with confusion.

“Feel what?” Astrid raised an eyebrow at me, unsure of what exactly I was referencing.

“I don’t feel anything,” Fishlegs added.

“Why must she speak in riddles?” I rolled my eyes.

“It’s too calm,” I explained. “No sign of Dragon Hunter ships.”

The Fireworm Queen led all of us up to the entrance to the caverns that made up the inside of the island, and briefly glanced back to make sure Snotlout and Hookfang were still following before she ducked inside, slipping into the curtain of darkness within.

“Whatever she wants help with is in there.” Snotlout pointed at the cavern entrance. “Let’s go, Hookfang!”

We didn’t have much choice but to follow. I remembered how narrow the tunnels were from last time, which already wasn’t great, but the added fact that something was waiting in there for us made the scenario that much more treacherous.

“Everyone be on alert,” Hiccup cautioned, clearly seeing the same risks I did. “We have no idea what could be waiting for us in those caves.

It was hard to see in the ever-growing darkness, but we could already tell there weren’t any signs of Dragon Hunters, something Astrid pointed out to the rest of the group. For now, we just had to trust the Fireworm Queen to lead us to whatever the threat was, using her glow to illuminate the walls. A sense of unease settled in my stomach, so I reached out and grabbed onto Hiccup’s hand, allowing the steadiness of his to put me back into just plain alertness. Just knowing he was there with me was enough to remind me that, despite the little changes, he was still him—something I needed in this moment.

“Guys, I have a sneaking suspicion we might not be alone,” Fishlegs quivered, holding up his left arm to show off some strange, green substance that had fallen onto it.

Whatever that was, I’d never seen it before. And based on Hiccup’s confused expression, he hadn’t either.

We only went a little deeper, when the Fireworm Queen stopped and roared at… what appeared to be a cave-in. Snotlout and Hookfang moved around the other side of her, trying to figure out what exactly about this was so troubling. Did she really just need us to move some rocks? I figured she’d be able to do that on her own, given her size and strength.

However, once the rest of us got a little closer, the problem became clear. Attempting to dig through the rocks was a strange creature—definitely a dragon, but not like any I’d ever encountered. It had no wings, and closer resembled something like a salamander. Its scales were colored green and black, covered in a thick layer of green mucus, which explained what fell on Fishlegs’ arm.

“What is that?” Astrid gasped, unable to tear her eyes away from the thing as it uprooted more of the cave-in. Despite what it was doing, something told me it wasn’t trying to help out.

Rustling from over near Fishlegs turned our attentions toward him. He’d removed his recently updated Dragon Cards from the front pocket of his belt and started to shuffle through them, trying to figure out what exactly we were looking at. When Tuffnut questioned him, Fishlegs calmly explained the existence of his on-the-go notes, and Hiccup leaned over to get a look at the newer versions.

“Fishlegs! These are incredible,” he marveled, a bright and goofy smile crossing his face.

“I know, right? Yeah, look. I even have dragon classes, sizes, and speed. All this dragon knowledge, right at our fingertips.”

“You two need a hobby,” Snotlout scoffed. Hiccup shrunk back a little, appearing annoyed with Snotlout’s discouragement, but when I pushed myself up a little and pressed a kiss against his cheek, his expression went back to the way it had been.

“I think they’re cool,” I shrugged, unashamed that not only had I become a nerd with this group, but that I was in love with one as well.

Fishlegs sorted through his cards a little more, until he finally stopped at one and held it up triumphantly in the air.

“I knew it. It’s a Cavern Crasher,” he informed us. “I’ve never seen one in the flesh.” He leaned down over the cards, reading the information only to himself. “Ooh. Mystery class. Whoa!”

“Uh Fishlegs?” He finally looked up from his own world, realizing everyone was staring at him. “Care to share, or…?” Fishlegs chuckled again, demonstrating he was overwhelmed with glee.

“The Cavern Crasher is a scavenging mystery class dragon,” he relayed. “It’s known for pushing dragons out of their homes and taking over.”

Well, that at least explained why this dragon was bothering the Fireworm Queen.

“Why would it do that?” Astrid questioned, moving the slightest bit closer to the dragon on Stormfly.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Fishlegs admitted, reading over the card again to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “Warmth? Shelter? Protection?”

“I find it hard to believe a dragon that big would need protection.”

“That’s why the Queen came to us for help,” I acknowledged, helping those that maybe weren’t completely caught up. “She couldn’t get it out of here all by herself.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Snotlout dismissed, waving his hand in my direction to attempt and shut me up. “We found the culprit. Now, let’s get to work, and am-scray this agon-dray.”

Without waiting to form any sort of strategy, Snotlout and Hookfang rushed right up to the Cavern Crasher, catching its attention with the noise. When it jumped down from the pile of rocks, it emitted an ear-piercing roar, one that felt as though it was going to bring down the walls. The dragon actually did flinch when Hookfang fired at it, but the second the heat let up, the Cavern Crashed shot a single stream of green fire, distracting everyone long enough for it to crawl out of our way. Everyone watched their surroundings carefully, unsure of what was about to happen next.

The question was answered just seconds later, when the Cavern Crasher jumped down from the ceiling and fired a shot right next to Astrid and Stormfly, causing the Nadder to jump before firing at the antagonist.

“Are there two of them?” Astrid shouted as Stormfly let up her magnesium blast.

“Nope! Extremely fast,” Fishlegs corrected, “especially for a dragon that big.”

Preoccupied in his Dragon Cards, Fishlegs failed to notice when a dragon started to lean down from the ceiling, staring down the pair of him and Meatlug like they were its next meal. Thankfully, Hiccup and Toothless reacted in time, calling out to them to warn them and firing a plasma blast at the dragon to scare it off. Every single one of our dragons used their fire—including Shriek, despite the fact it tired her out—until the Cavern Crasher crouched extremely low to the ground and started to shake itself, generating a large amount of that thick, green mucus that coated its body. Once it was practically dripping in the substance, the dragon ran around all of us, creating a line of it along the ground that each of us just narrowly avoided.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

Hookfang shot out fire, but when it hit the Cavern Crasher’s back, it just ignited the mucus, causing the flames to run along the entire line, trapping all of us within our own circles. Shriek backed up a little, scared and shocked, and I had to stop her from moving all the way into the flames. My eyes desperately searched for some way out, but the fire had completely consumed us, and the ceiling of the cave was just too low for us to be able to fly over it.

“What is this stuff?” Snotlout gasped, clearly regretting what he’d just made his dragon do.

“Now, that, my friend, is a flaming trail of awesome!” Tuffnut exclaimed, staring at the fire with excited eyes.

“We can’t get through these flames!” I cried as Shriek stepped forward again, unfortunately causing a small burn mark to appear on my right hand.

“Okay, and then Reign swoops in and kills the fun.”

The Cavern Crasher must have started hitting the walls, or maybe brought down another cave-in, because the ceiling began to tremble, sending down stalactites too close to our heads, threatening to kill us if one managed to actually get to us.

“Hiccup!” I called out, panicked.

Thankfully, right as I felt my heart about to burst through my chest, the Fireworm Queen jumped down onto the flames, extinguishing the line that kept all of us trapped. We had just enough of an opening to follow her and Snotlout deeper into the caves and away from the fires that threatened to do further damage. Though the Fireworm Queen kept going deeper in, the rest of us stopped and allowed ourselves to catch our breath.

“Whew! It would appear we’re in the middle of a territorial dispute.” Fishlegs just sounded happy to be alive, not that I blamed him. Hiccup, on the other hand, was ready to jump back into the fight, not wanting to put the Fireworms at any greater of a risk.

“Okay, guys, the Queen needs our help, so we’re gonna—“

“No, no, no,” Snotlout interrupted. “No time for thinking. We need action. That’s why she came to me and Hookfang.”

“Yeah, Snotlout, that’s fine, but—“

“She saved Hookfang’s life, and a Jorgenson always repays his debts. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to save her life.” I moved Shriek to stand beside Hiccup and Toothless, staring down Snotlout.

“But you can’t go by yourself!” I insisted, concerned about his safety.

“I’m not by myself. I’m with Hookfang. And we’re doing this alone. Now, Hookie!”

Before any of us got the chance to stop them, Snotlout and Hookfang rushed into the tunnel the Fireworm Queen had entered not long ago, and right when Hiccup and I tried to follow them, the cave shook violently, and boulders crumbled down in front of the entrance we were supposed to go through, meaning we were trapped out here, and Snotlout and Hookfang were without backup in there.

Desperate to help him, those of us remaining started flying our dragons through any tunnels and entrances we could find, looping around thousands of times before we just ended up right back where we started from, no more successful than before. Hiccup and I stopped ourselves in front of the rocks that had come down, running our fingers over the cracks in an attempt to find some way to loosen them.

“There must be another way around this cave-in,” Hiccup muttered, finally taking a step back from the wall.

“We’ve been down these tunnels before, remember?” I set a hand on his shoulder, trying to bring him out of what was almost a trance. “There were several entrances to the lower chambers.”

“I remember this tunnel over here,” Astrid observed, pointing down the pathway. “I think it loops around.”

Without much of a choice, we all followed Astrid and Stormfly down the winding tunnels, calling out for Snotlout while Toothless sent out his echolocation blast, but nothing came up. These definitely were different caverns and tunnels than we had seen before, but I felt no closer to finding our rogue Viking.

We’d just reached the next cavern between networks, when the Cavern Crasher jumped out from what looked like inside the walls, causing us to stop our dragons short.

“Whoa! Where did he come from?” Hiccup gasped.

“I know. There was only one way to get in here.” I stared at the dragon, trying to figure out how exactly it either got in, or managed to hide well enough for us to somehow not see it.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if it flattened its body and came through the cracks in the walls?” I shifted my gaze to Tuffnut, unamused, as Fishlegs slapped his hand against his forehead. “What? How is that not cool?”

“I’m fairly certain that’s impossible, Tuffnut,” I groaned.

“Everyone, grab your bolas!” Hiccup instructed, moving us past whatever that was that just happened.

He managed to actually get the bola onto the Cavern Crasher, but he missed the dragon’s legs entirely, causing what was typically a restraint to just fall on the dragon’s head, allowing it to shake the thing off.

“Almost!” I whipped my head around to look him in the eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘almost?’ You hit its head! Last I checked, those aren’t the legs.”

We didn’t have the chance to debate it further because the Crasher turned itself around and started to shake its body again, generating more mucus this time than the last. I expected it to start running around and spreading down a line again, but this time, it started to move its tail up and down, creating a strange indication something else was about to happen.

“The mucus! Watch out for the mucus!” Hiccup warned. Right then, Tuffnut sneezed, somehow serving as a symbolic trigger for what came next.

The Cavern Crasher whipped its body around, causing the large stream of mucus to come flying right at us. I stuck my arms up, preventing any of it from getting in my eyes, but the sticky substance buried itself everywhere else, the thought of it on my skin alone causing me to gag. It slowly started to creep down from my hair and forehead, getting dangerously close to my eyes and lips, forcing me to quickly wipe my face in an effort to not ingest any of this substance.

“This is nasty, even for us,” Tuff gagged, shaking his hands.

“Yuk!” Fishlegs was vigorously attempting to get the mucus off his arms, but to no prevail. “This is not coming off, it’s too sticky.”

Furious, the twins started to chase after the Cavern Crasher as it started to run away, clearly forgetting what happened the last time one of us fired at this stuff. If it was on our bodies and still extremely flammable, that couldn’t work well with one of our dragons shooting.

“Ruff! Tuff! Wait!”

Hiccup’s cries came too late. Belch lit up Barf’s gas, but instead of the explosion occurring in front of them, the twins’ clothes lit aflame, and the force of the hit sent them tumbling off their dragon. For the moment, we were down two fighters.

“That slime becomes flammable when it hits the air,” I reminded them. Astrid and I had to move out of the way when the Cavern Crasher tried to fire at the two of us, attempting to light one of us on fire. “Keep out of the way of those blasts, or we’re cooked!”

One prominent issue caused this to be a lot harder than it sounded. Shriek and I found ourselves frequently having to duck out of the way of another dragon and their Rider, threatening to collide with them frequently. Not to mention, I was practically laying on Shriek, given I was too tall to sit upright with how high up she had to be.

“Hiccup! There’s not much room to fly in here,” I complained, pushing myself further down on my dragon.

“I know!” He and Toothless rolled in the air to avoid getting hit, something our dragons weren’t as capable of.

I figured we would just have to wait out the Cavern Crasher’s blasts until it hit its shot limit, and then we’d maybe be able to get close enough to it and wrap it up in bolas. However, it seemed like every time the Cavern Crasher flung more mucus from its body, it got all its shots back, because the thing never let up from any of us, igniting its own bodily fluids on the walls and floor in an attempt to trap us.

“You know, believe it or not, that blast really opened up my sinuses,” Tuffnut mused, attempting to find the positive spin in all this.

My attention was immediately directed away from the twins when I heard Fishlegs screaming in panic. The Cavern Crasher had him and Meatlug backed against the wall, and its mouth open and ready to fire. On instinct, I tapped Shriek to warn her to prep a sonic boom, but right as she was about to scream, the dragon turned around, focused on something else, and started to run away, forcing her to call it off so she wouldn’t hit Fishlegs and Meatlug on accident.

“What’s it doing?” he asked cautiously. It wasn’t until all of us fell silent that I heard the tiny, high-pitched screeches that initially caught the Cavern Crasher’s attention. “Eggs.”

“Babies,” I gasped, horrified.

“Dinner!” My horror shifted to the twins.

“Tuffnut, no!” I barked.

“What? It seemed to go. You know, it seemed to work, rhythm-wise.”

“The Fireworm Queen’s eggs!” Hiccup exclaimed, putting all the pieces together.

“That’s why she didn’t abandon her hive.” And now, the Cavern Crasher was heading right for them.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

All of us turned tail and steered our dragons down the tunnels, just barely catching up to the speedy dragon. Hiccup and Fishlegs managed to get a little ahead of the group, and, thinking fast, had their dragons shoot at the rocks just above another entrance, causing them to crumble down and block the way. The Cavern Crasher crawled along the rocks blocking its path, growling and grumbling once it realized there was no way through.

“Great work, gang!” Hiccup complimented, already reaching for one of his bolas.

“Looks like ugly here isn’t making it into the hive.” Though I wanted to reach out for Hiccup, the mucus slowly drying up and flaking on both of us discouraged me from that.

“You guys are leaving me behind?” Tuffnut whined. I had to admit, something in me felt bad that he thought that about himself.

“Not you,” I sighed. “The dragon.”

“Okay. Now let’s try to figure out how to get it out of here for good. Grab those bolas, we’ll try again.”

We wouldn’t get our shot. Once all of us finished removing our bolas from our saddles, the Cavern Crasher puffed itself up, dispelling mucus from every pore—and then, in an amazing feat of defying anatomy, it completely flattened its body and worked its way through the cracks in the boulders, escaping to the other side.

My jaw dropped as I stared at the rocks where the Cavern Crasher had stood just seconds ago, unable to understand what just happened.

“Hiccup, did you see that?” Fishlegs stuttered, trying to pull himself together. “It just collapsed its skeleton!”

“And squeezed through the cracks. Yes, I told you!” Tuffnut cheered, reveling in his victory despite the now much direr circumstances.

“Once again, nobody listens to the Nut,” Ruff lamented.

“The Nut is all-knowing.”

“The Nut is all-seeing.”

“The Nut is all-believing.” That one didn’t surprise me in the slightest.

“Maybe the Nut knows how to get through this cave-in,” Astrid suggested. Ruff and Tuff hesitated, thinking over Astrid’s words before shrugging their shoulders.

“The Nut… knows not. Doesn’t know how to get in through the cave-in.” I, on the other hand, was still focused on what we had just witnessed that dragon do.

“I mean, that completely defies biology!” I cried, gesturing toward the rocks the Cavern Crasher had slipped through. “How do you even collapse a whole _skeleton_? How is that even possible? With all the joints and ligaments and muscle, how-how—“

My brain was officially broken at that point. I couldn’t begin to fathom how any being could do that, let alone that dragon we were trying to prevent from breaking into a nest and taking Fireworm Eggs. The odds could not be more stacked against us, despite our higher numbers.

Since the mucus had dried by this point, we all decided to try shooting at the rocks in an attempt to shake them loose. Shriek used a combination of her fireball and sonic boom, hoping that maybe the force of the two one right after the other might cause something to happen, but after what felt like an eternity (but was likely more akin to about three minutes), nothing had changed, save for a few pebbles falling down.

“It’s no use, Hiccup,” I groaned, my patience wearing thin. “It’s too dense. It’ll take us forever to blast through.”

“And there’s no way around it this time,” Fishlegs groaned. “We’ve gotta get through here.”

A contemplative look crossed Hiccup’s face, but it only lingered there for a moment, quickly melting into a confident smirk.

“Hey-Hey Nuts? What do you mean ‘the Nut knows not?’ The Nut knows.” The twins looked to Hiccup, confused as to where he was trying to go with this.

“The Nut does?”

“He certainly does!” I declared, trying to push and agenda I didn’t really understand. The twins’ eyes started to bounce around faster, building up an idea until the crescendo of the plan dawned on them.

“Oh, right. Of course he does!”

“Who are we talking about, again?” Ruffnut hissed.

“I don’t know. I don’t know, just go with it.” Hiccup and I exchanged a brief glance, rolling our eyes before trying to get the twins’ ball rolling again.

“And if there was ever a time for the Nut to use their all-knowingness and their expert stone-carving skills, it’s right now.”

Perfect. This was actually a time when we needed the twins’ strange talents.

“You’re right! I owe it to my public.” He turned to his twin sister with a smirk. “Sister Nut?”

“I live for my craft.”

The rest of us made sure to put a good distance between ourselves and the twins, so that we wouldn’t become the victims of collateral damage. The way the twins were able to maneuver Barf and Belch’s heads to spill gas into the smallest of crack was admittedly impressive, and extremely useful in this moment. The way it spread out causing the explosion to work itself all the way into the center of the cave-in, causing the rocks to fly out everywhere and open up the entrance to the last cavern. The moment it was safe, all of us rushed in on our dragons, calling out for the person we’d been searching for this whole time.

“Snotlout?”

Hiccup’s words echoed against the bare wall for a moment, fleeting away our hopes that we would finally find him. My shoulders slumped a little, worried about what might have happened to him and where exactly he ended up. Did he even know how to get back out?

“Hiccup! Don’t come down here!”

The tension that had built up in me completely released with a sigh. For the moment, we climbed off our dragons, wanting to make sure that if the Cavern Crasher mucus was anywhere, it would be less likely to get on any of us. Sure enough, the sticky, green substance practically coated all the stone around us, creating precarious quarters.

“Be careful, guys,” I warned. “Crasher slime.” Tuffnut stopping dead in his tracks piqued my interest.

“Perhaps we should also be careful of that as well? Don’t you think?”

Hiccup just barely managed to grab onto my waist and pull me down behind our dragons before the shot of the Cavern Crasher’s fire touched down on the slime of the same color, sending another line of fire straight down the tunnel. The heat of the flames licked dangerously close to my body, making my skin prickle with sweat. I pushed myself closer to Hiccup, attempting to avoid getting burnt for the second time.

“Gang! Dragons!”

Not wanting to question the methods at this point, everyone hopped on the backs of their dragons and managed to get them just over the top of the flames. Though it was risky, the mucus on our bodies was basically nothing more than a crusty, gritty inconvenience at this point, so no one would be cooked alive this time.

Our dragons descended further down the twisting caverns, following the screeches of Fireworms and a Monstrous Nightmare, and eventually, a bright, bursting, yellow flame, so large it actually reached into the corridor a bit. If that wasn’t our destination, then I just didn’t know what sort of universe we were in anymore.

“This guy will not give up!” I heard Snotout gripe as the rest of us rounded the corner, spotting Snotlout and Hookfang and the Fireworm Queen standing firm across from the Cavern Crasher, defending thousands of tiny, baby Fireworms.

“Maybe you need some back-up.” Snotlout laughed as all of us flew over his head, but he quickly switched back to a serious expression.

“Right. But remember, you’re only back-up.”

“Oh, I know, pal.”

It wasn’t really something I should’ve been focusing on in that moment, but I swore I’d never heard Hiccup call Snotlout anything resembling a friendly term before.

The mucus had been completely removed from the back of the Cavern Crasher, making it much easier to hit the dragon without posing any risk to ourselves. Its scales were still fireproof, meaning we wouldn’t be doing any actual damage, but the overwhelming fire power caused the dragon to flinch. One by one, each of us landed our dragons and shot out continuous fire, remaining unrelenting until the Cavern Crasher let out a final, earth-shattering roar, then turned around and started to run out through the tunnels, hopefully either deciding to live in another part of the caves in peace, or leaving the island altogether.

Finally able to see her babies were safe, the Fireworm Queen leaned down toward them, eliciting tiny squeaks and purrs from the thousands of infants. Watching the scene made something in my heart swell, and when my eyes flickered over to Hiccup, he shared the same sort of smile. Watching the Queen care for those little ones evoked something powerful in me, something that I never felt with anyone in my life, and I reached out to take Hiccup’s hand, pulling the two of us closer until our arms were pressed together. Something in the moment told me our future was becoming more certain.

Snotlout shook his head, turning to look back at Hiccup and I with regret in his eyes.

“I know, I know, I defied orders again,” he sighed.

“No, you didn’t,” Hiccup chuckled. “I never ordered you to do anything. This one was all you.”

“Why didn’t you try and stop me?” I smirked at Snotlout.

“Would you? Have stopped, that is.” Though he tried to deny at first, Snotlout ultimately just ended up shrugging.

“Probably not.”

“Then why are we talking about it?” The three of us laughed a little, brushing off any of the worry Snotlout felt about getting scolded or yelled at.

“You know, I could’ve gotten killed in there,” he pointed out casually.

“Yeah, but you didn’t. You crushed it today, Snotlout,” Hiccup complimented. “You really did. This was all you.”

“Thanks for the back-up.”

We decided, not long after the exchange, that it was time to head back to the Edge, mainly so that we could get cleaned up. The texture of the dried mucus was creating an intense sensation of disgust and discomfort in me, so I called getting clean first. Though all of us had pretty much decided we were going to bathe with our clothes on, to kill two birds with one stone, the others still gave Hiccup and I privacy.

The water of the lagoon was surprisingly warm, likely from sitting in the sun all day, allowing the two of us to sit and just soak for a while. I repeatedly dipped myself under the water and just swam around close to the bottom, reveling in something I hadn’t done in ages. I’d been messing around for who-knows-long, when, the next time I surfaced, I felt a hand on my shoulder pull me back until I hit Hiccup’s chest piece. I wasn’t the one who really needed to relax, but I no less enjoyed the little moment we had here, when he wasn’t openly obsessing about what Viggo would do next.

I tried my best to distract him, knowing that the moment we climbed out of the water, he’d want to get right back to work. For now, I floated against him in the calm waters, but once my mind grew bored with that, I grabbed onto his hand and yanked him under the water, catching him off-guard. When the two of us surfaced again, I watched as his head dipped back and a genuine laugh escaped from his lips, causing me to do the same.

Seeing him this happy made me feel the same.

Smiling wide, I swam back over to Hiccup, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him. I just wanted to stay there forever, but eventually, we had to give the others the chance to wash the mucus off, so reluctantly, I got out and helped Hiccup gather up more boulders.

The rest of the group came back to work around sunset, increasing our productivity greatly. Still, the twins weren’t helping out, and instead went back their sculpture, adding something in between their heads. The booming and rock-shaking went on for quite a while, until a cloud of thick dust covered the final product.

“We did it again,” Tuffnut declared. “Only we could have made something this glorious.”

“We call it, ‘The Ballad of the Lout Versus the Crasher.’”

All they had really done was add Snotlout to the cliff side, but their craftsmanship was still ever-impressive. In spite of that, something about their title stuck out to me, not quite right.

“It’s breathtaking,” Snotlout whispered. Of course he’d be the biggest fan of it.

“Um, isn’t a ballad technically a song?” I observed, voicing my confusion.

“No. S’not.” Immediately, boisterous laughter tumbled from the twins, finding their own joke hilarious.

“You get it? It’s snot. That’s the whole idea. We made it a ballad so that people would be like, ‘isn’t it this?’ And then we say, ‘s’not.’” My eyes rolled deep back into my skull.

“Well, I love it,” Snotlout chuckled. “Although, Astrid, would you say my likeness is handsome and chiseled enough?”

Astrid groaned, her face falling into her hand, while the rest of us laughed, not taking him seriously.

At least things were easing back to normal.


	30. Follow the Leader

**_While I love the idea of sending Reign off on an adventure with Fishlegs to find the Darkvarg Night Terrors, I already used up my double narration, so sadly, she will have to be left out of this one. BUT on the bright side, I get to be pretty original with this chapter because all other characters are in this episode for a total of, like, ten minutes_ **

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It wasn’t the sunlight that woke me, or the squawking of Toothless and Shriek bounding around the island; the breeze and the sweet smells of the flowers that drifted along it weren’t enough to motivate me to open my eyes and start my day. No, for the first time in a long while, I wasn’t forced up before I wanted to be by someone running into the hut with a complaint or warning about something that had been damaged or caught on fire.

Instead, the only thing that stirred me from the comforting lull of sleep was the fact my body had enough rest, and was actually ready to face the day.

Normally, I wasn’t a fan of sleeping on the ground, given how uncomfortable it was, but this time around, it was quite possibly one of the best things that could have happened—especially as I laid there, brushing some messy, red hair from Reign’s still-closed eyes. I’d actually managed to sleep through the night, not riddled with images of worst-case scenarios of attacks, but rather more peaceful images of a future I hoped would be.

Initially, this had started out as Reign and I volunteering to take a quadrant of the outer edges of our map, searching for any new bases or fleets of Dragon Hunter ships. Surprisingly, that had ended up going relatively quickly, but we’d told the others we would be gone for a couple of days, so we decided to just find the nearest safe island and camp out there for the remainder of our trip. The thought of not working on reinforcements for the Edge definitely bit at the back of my brain, but somehow, Reign always managed to know when it bothered me and found some way to distract me. It wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped to do, but it was no less welcome.

As I laid there beside the woman I loved, my mind drifted back to the small item of jewelry hidden in one of my drawers back on Dragon’s Edge. Every now and then, when I was sure Reign was asleep, I’d take it out and look it over again, wondering how one little object could cause so much internal conflict. Though I didn’t say anything about my plans to her, we both decided that night after facing Viggo that any and everything should be placed on hold until the Hunters were dealt with. That had been the discussion for a long while, but the resistance on it had started to fade toward the end; and now, the wall went up higher, completely closing off the idea.

Sometimes, I wondered if it was better to just get it over with.

When I shifted to pull Reign closer, her eyes opened slowly, eventually drifting up to meet mine. I could feel my heart hammer in my chest as the tiniest smile stretched on her lips, easing a sigh of content from her before she leaned her head back against my chest.

“Good morning.” Her voice was so faint and muffled, I barely heard the greeting.

“’Morning, mi’lady.” I watched as her cheeks burned bright red, and her face buried itself further, causing me to laugh. For whatever reason, that nickname always got her more than the others. It wasn’t until I leaned down and pressed a kiss against the top of her head that she looked back up again, the grin ever-present on her face.

“Listen, I know we have to go back to the Edge eventually, but… can’t we just stay out here another day?” Sighing, I shook my head and sat up a little, keeping one arm around her waist.

“We’ve got to get back and work on reinforcements,” I reminded her. “We might not have found any Hunters out this way, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t planning their attack on the Edge.”

Reign’s eyes rolled back and she slammed the back of her head against the sleeping mat, emphasizing her annoyance.

“Hiccup, they don’t even know where the Edge is,” she insisted. “The only way they would know is Dagur, and I’m genuinely convinced he isn’t smart enough to remember the coordinates. Otherwise, they would’ve found us a long time ago.”

“We should still make sure we’re prepared.” I tried my best to move on from what she’d just mentioned. It really wasn’t a good idea to mention what happened with her brother; I genuinely feared what her reaction would be. “Viggo’s incredibly smart.”

Reign paused a moment, running her eyes over my face before one of her hands moved to rest on my cheek.

“But we’re _going_ to outsmart him.” I didn’t understand how she could sound so confident in that. “We messed up once. It might not be tomorrow, or the next week, but we will figure him out. And when that happens, when we’re finally able to take him and the Dragon Hunters down, it’ll be a victory for the ages.”

Her words left me deep in my own mind. Everything we’d been studying about the Dragon Hunters reaped no rewards, demonstrating no purposeful pattern in their strategies and places of attack. I wanted to make sense of the last time I ran into them, before Toothless and I got stranded, but I just had to chock it up to coincidence. Any effort I made to try and figure them out just fell flat; that wasn’t exactly encouraging progress.

Yet, somehow, Reign had remained confident and positive throughout this whole experience. If we failed, she immediately glued herself back to our strategy board, working through what we’d just done to try and spot anything that could be of use. She flew into every battle determined and left not more deterred. If it weren’t for her, I honestly wasn’t sure I would’ve been able to pull through this.

“We should at least eat before we head back,” she declared, moving to her feet and extending a hand down so I could join her. “No use going back to work without some form of energy.”

I wasn’t about to turn that down.

The day before, Reign and I had taken our dragons out and caught enough fish to last us for our entire trip, and she scavenged for a few berries and nuts that could serve as well. It wasn’t as decadent as what we had to eat back on the Edge, but it brought back memories of all the times we would go patrol toward the end of the day when we were younger.

Once Toothless lit our fire for the last time, and I had set the fish into the pan we’d brought, my mind got the chance to wander around. While Viggo’s next plan of attack remained prominent, the moment Reign crossed my path to take a seat, the little thing bugging me earlier came back. Despite our conversations from the past, I wanted to at least see where she stood now.

“Hey, so, uh…” The moment she looked at me, I felt my entire body seize up. There was absolutely no way to ease into all of this, was there? “Uh… I was thinking, and… I just wanted…” Suddenly feeling ashamed, I trailed off before looking away.

“You just wanted…?” The way her eyebrow went up certainly didn’t help with the feeling I was being scrutinized.

“The-The whole, um… ‘marriage’ thing.” Reign’s expression softened, but not exactly to the one I’d hoped to see.

“I thought we agreed we were tabling anything about that until the Dragon Hunters weren’t a problem anymore.” She looked away, picking out a few berries from the bag and passing them to me. “I mean, I’d just feel irresponsible if we put our focus into a union ceremony right now. Especially if that led to an attack going unnoticed.”

She had a point.

“No, yeah, that-that makes sense.”

Upon noticing the way my demeanor changed, Reign smiled and scooted closer, resting her hand over mine, causing a warmth to spread over the entire arm. She didn’t need to speak—a scenario we often found ourselves in at this point in our relationship—for me to get the message: not now, but eventually.

It felt like that happened far too often in our lives.

We finished our breakfast with little conversations sprinkled throughout, then snuffed out the fire and packed up our things, ready for the relatively short flight back to the Edge. The two of us had initially planned to get everything put away and then start on some more of the large spyglasses I’d made to put on various points of the island, but when we arrived, all of that immediately flew out the window.

Instead, we were greeted with large amounts of smoke coming up from the land around the training arena, with the twins and Snotlout staring at the damage they’d done with proud smiles. I could see the storehouse where we kept the Monstrous Nightmare gel supply completely ripped open, with literally every jar laid out in front of it, depleted of any of the green substance.

My hands tightened against Toothless’ saddle, then Reign and I landed in front of the trio, glaring at them. Snotlout tossed the jar he had been holding away, but none of them appeared any sorrier about what they’d done.

“Anyone care to explain what’s going on?” I seethed when none of them spoke up.

“I feel like it’s fairly obvious,” Ruffnut shrugged. “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, Hiccup.”

“Ruffnut!” Reign snapped. The fury in her eyes faded a moment later, and she reached down to pick up an empty jar. “How could any of you think this was a good idea? No, wait, don’t answer that. I don’t actually want to know your reasoning.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Tuffnut shrugged. “It’s our stuffed yak.” I rolled my eyes as Tuff gestured to the taxidermied animal they’d lit aflame.

“It’s not the yak, Tuffnut. It’s the Monstrous Nightmare gel you used to set the yak on fire,” I sighed, throwing the container I’d been inspecting to the ground.

“We’ve been harvesting it to defend the Edge from Viggo and his army.”

“All right, so we might’ve gotten a little carried away.” Snotlout still didn’t seem remorseful in the slightest. “What’s the big deal? It’s not like we don’t know where we can get more.” He leaned against Hookfang, but that wasn’t the issue. The fact that he didn’t understand that seriously concerned me.

“What if our dragons aren’t around? What if the Dragon Hunters attack again and we don’t have the Nightmare gel?”

“Hookfang can’t replace all that.” Reign gestured to all the jars splayed out on the ground, emphasizing the daunting amount of replacements we’d need.

“I didn’t say he was going to,” Snotlout argued.

By that point, I’d reached my breaking point with these three. The last thing we needed right now was to be left defenseless from any angle, and this put a huge, gaping hole in our ability to fight back. Reign and I had hoped that, since Snotlout had been the one to primarily harvest the gel from his dragon, he might be motivated by the sheer amount of work it took to never waste a single drop, but when the twins got involved, his brain melted into chaos, not worrying about the consequences of any of his actions.

“Would you just get more gel?” I groaned. “I don’t care how you do it, just do it.”

Though reluctant, the twins and Snotlout listened to my pleas, heading off to go gather up more of the essential supply. Frustration still coursed heavily through me when I heard another voice behind us, uncharacteristically excited for this sort of event.

“Hiccup! Reign! You’re not going to believe this!”

I turned around briefly to glance at Fishlegs, then stared back at the carnage ever-present in front of us. Astrid had gone back to Berk for the week to help out the A-Team, meaning Fishlegs was the next best person to leave in charge.

At least, that’s what I’d thought at the time.

“Yeah, no kidding. I can’t believe any of this.” Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a fire still burning. Fishlegs’ eyes scanned over the damage once, and his eager expression instantly died. “Fishlegs, did you know this was going on?”

“Well, yes, I guess,” he admitted. “Sort of. I told them to stop.”

“And?” I pressed, my hands resting on my hips.

“And what?”

“And they didn’t! And now we’ve got fires to put out all around the base and an emptied out supply of Monstrous Nightmare gel. Fishlegs, we’re on our own out here. Okay? This kind of stuff can’t happen. Not with Viggo out there.”

“I just… I…” Whatever excuse he had, it wasn’t going to be enough to fix this. “I’m sorry, Hiccup! You know how the twins and Snotlout can be.”

“Yes, I do. But you’re better than that. It’s just… disappointing.”

The unleashing of my thoughts left me feeling tired and defeated, but there was still more work to be done. Reign offered me a brief smile, attempting to bring any sort of comfort or reassurance before the two of us hopped on our dragons. We grabbed a couple buckets each, using them to scoop up lagoon water and douse flames with it. The three troublemakers had managed to do quite a lot of damage on all reaches of the island, wasting more of the time we could have spent working on provisions for an attack. I’d been so determined to get a lot done when we returned, but by the time Reign and I finished cleaning up and putting out fires, I just wanted to sit for a while.

Not wanting the day to completely go to waste, I studied the board Reign and I had set up on our table, littered with islands and ships, and the Maces and Talons pieces meant to represent both sides of the war. We’d walked through what felt like an infinite amount of battle strategies and possible parries from the Dragon Hunters, but at the moment, it was serving as a means to track any movements we’d caught wind of or witnessed ourselves. The way they were spaced out proved absolutely nothing, however. No two sets of ships were heading in the same direction, though most were usually carrying dragons. The ones without any sort of cargo or obvious destination were the ones that confused me most, likely nothing more than a device to distract us. Wherever Viggo was, he definitely was still strategizing.

“Hey.” I continued to stare at the board when I felt arms wrap around my shoulders. “You should take a break for a while. Your eyebrows look like they’re about to get stuck down there.” I merely brushed her off, not really wanting to break my concentration. Reign, of course, had other ideas. “Hiccup Haddock, I swear to Thor…”

_Smack!_

A single slap against the back of my head caused me to whip around. Reign stood behind me, a satisfied smirk on her face as I rose up from my chair and stepped closer to her.

“What was that for?” She continued to laugh at her own stunt. “You really can be a child sometimes.”

“But, look.” She gestured her hand over all of me. “You’re away from the board.”

I took a glance back at the very thing that had been occupying so much of my attention, blinking at it until I fully processed that, yes, Reign had actually managed to distract me from work. As far as I was aware, no one else had been able to do that except her. How she always managed to draw me out of my own mind, I’d never understand.

Sighing, she stepped up to me and placed her hands on my arms, a troubled and worried expression now shadowing her previously giddy and playful one. I could tell the wheels in her brain had started turning faster, based on the way her irises bounced back and forth ever-so-slightly.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked, placing my fingers on her chin to bring her gaze up to mine.

“I feel bad about Fishlegs,” she sighed. “The twins can really be a handful, and with Snotlout… that’s a nightmare for anyone, even us.”

“But Fishlegs saw they were wasting the Monstrous Nightmare gel and just left the scene,” I reminded her. “He actively knew about what was going on.”

“Hiccup, it’s Fishlegs.” She tilted her head a little. “You and him have a lot in common: you’re both brilliant, kind, capable Vikings. But, at the end of the day, he doesn’t have the natural instinct to lead like you do. Sure, he can take charge on some missions, but when it comes to giving out orders and deciding which battles are worth it and which aren’t… he’s not one of those people.”

I let out a long sigh. She was right. I’d left someone in charge that wasn’t meant to make the long-term decisions—and, deep down, he probably knew that, too. Besides, leaving Fishlegs to deal with a group we couldn’t control and then berating him for falling victim to the exact same thing? That wasn’t exactly fair.

“I should find him.” Reign’s smile returned, and she looped one of her arms through mine, removing the other from the grip she had maintained before.

“I’ll come with you. I know I didn’t say anything, but I still feel bad.”

The two of us made our way to Fishlegs’ hut, figuring that would be the best way to find him. Sure enough, there was definite noise inside his hut… but there was also quite the mess on the platform outside it. Building materials like nails and boards were scattered in some dangerous places, and Fishlegs’ axe rested right by his doorframe.

“Okay… lumber. Check. Nails. Check. Axe…” I pushed open the door in the middle of him running through his list, presenting his axe to him.

“What do you need your axe for?” Fishlegs turned and smiled at the two of us, revealing the boxes upon boxes of supplies he gathered up.

“Well, if you must know, I’m working on a personal project.” Strangely, the remorse and bashfulness he’d demonstrated earlier had completely dissolved, leaving him back to his normal self.

“A personal project? What kind of personal project?” Reign inquired, leaning over me slightly.

“All I can tell you is that it’s, well…” He trailed off, suddenly no longer meeting eyes with either of us.

“Personal?”

“Exactly.” I took the opportunity when he reached forward to take his axe from my hand.

“Listen, Fishlegs, about earlier—“

“It’s fine, Hiccup,” he dismissed a little too quickly. “It’s fine. It’s all good. All good in the archipela-hood.”

Without waiting for either of us to say anything more, Fishlegs gathered up some of his supplies and hopped up onto Meatlug, steering the two of them off to some unknown location. I watched them disappear on the horizon, confused and concerned. His attempts to just brush everything off actually just made it seem more like he was deeply hurt by what had happened, and that he wanted nothing more than to get away from us. More so, I worried he was trying to do something to prove himself, which could end in horrible disaster.

I back deep into my own thoughts, trying to figure out what exactly was going on with him. Unconsciously, I began to walk toward the training arena, taking to a pattern of pacing back and forth once the two of us arrived. reign stood with her arms crossed for a while, just watching me go to and fro while I wracked my brain. I’d expect something like this more from Snotlout, or maybe a secret project from Astrid and Reign—though, in that case, it would most likely be some sort of reinforcement or means of defending the Edge. With Fishlegs, I honestly wasn’t sure what he was planning. What he had looked more suitable for building some sort of wooden shield, but with the fire we typically were subjected to, those were pretty much useless. The only conclusion I could reach was that he was purposefully avoiding Reign and I because of what we’d said to him earlier.

“Hiccup, I’m sure he’s fine,” Reign attempted to assure me. “You know Fishlegs. He’s probably geeking out somewhere on some new foliage.”

“Yeah, but he usually geeks out with me,” I whined, throwing my arms up. “It’s not like him. Think I was too hard on him earlier?” I could see Reign was biting back some sort of smile, which didn’t exactly seem appropriate, given the situation. “What?”

“You’re jealous of whatever it is that Fishlegs is doing!” she laughed, acting like she was reveling in some sort of victory.

“What? Reign, that’s ridiculous,” I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Oh, please. First of all, you are absolutely the type to get jealous; don’t try and convince me otherwise. Second, you’re upset because he’s focusing all of his geek attention on this thing he’s doing, rather than on you. You are jealous of something that you don’t even know what it is!” Her laughter grew louder until she realized I was staring at her, unamused. “Oh, come on. You’ve still got me.” My heart rate started to pick up as she began to trace nonsense patterns along my arms and chest. “I know I’m not the sort of person you obsess over some new leaf with, but…”

Before she got the chance to finish, Snotlout and the twins landed behind her, returning from their hunt. Snotlout held five jars of Nightmare gel in his arms, while the twins carried a mere one container.

“Here you go, Hiccup. My portion of Monstrous Nightmare gel.” I graciously accepted the measly amounts of gel Snotlout had gathered, recognizing that at this point, it was better than nothing.

Tuffnut opened up the lid of the jar he and his sister had, peering into it before holding it upside-down and allowing the single drop inside to fall onto the stone.

“Uh… we’d like to make a good-faith offer for Hookfang’s gel,” Tuffnut offered. Clearly, we missed some vital context to this conversation.

“I told you the price. It’s non-negotiable.”

“Yeah, but if we buy in bulk, shouldn’t we get a better deal?” Ruffnut argued.

“Oh, yeah. In some alternate, fantasy world, why not? But this is the real world!” Surprisingly, Tuff ended up caving.

“Fine! We’ll take the gel. Put it on Ruff’s tab.”

“I heard that,” Ruff barked. With that exchange completed, the twins looked to Reign and I.

“This should cover part of what we owe. We’ll get out there as soon as the scabs heal. Or we pick them off and eat them.”

Disgusted, I grimaced at them and turned away quickly to put the jars we had into the storehouse. Seeing a few shares in there helped ease my mind a little, but we still were dangerously low. If the Hunters showed up, we wouldn’t be able to rely on our strategy with this extremely useful substance.

“Hiccup?” I shut the doors and turned back around to face Reign. “You want to head back for a bit?”

I smiled and gladly took her hand.

“Yes, please.”

The crash of something bursting through the door shot Reign and I awake. Panicking, my breaths came in pants, and Reign almost immediately shot up, grabbing her sword from her side of the bed and holding it out. At first, I relaxed a little, realizing it was just Meatlug, but upon realizing she was without her rider, my worry from earlier came rushing back, biting at me.

“Meatlug? What is it, girl?” Reign and I descended downwards, which caused the Gronckle to at least stop flailing. She nodded her head toward the outside, indicating something was wrong somewhere. “Is it Fishlegs? Is he in trouble? Where is he? Show us, girl.”

With Reign’s help, I managed to get Meatlug out from our door, then the two of us rounded up the rest of the gang to follow her wherever she was trying to lead us. Our dragons kept close behind, going all the way to the other side of the island, and down into a cave I never even knew existed. Cautious, Reign placed the hand that wasn’t holding her lantern on her sword, and we all climbed off our dragons, unsure of what the terrain down here would bring.

“Easy, Meatlug,” I called out when she sped ahead of the rest of us.

“I’ve never seen her move so fast,” Snotlout observed. “She’s way cooler than I thought.”

We followed her around corners and down narrow tunnels, unsure of what exactly she was doing. For now, we just had to trust her instincts.

“Are we sure Fishlegs is even down here?” Reign hissed, holding her lantern up to examine the walls.

Right as the words left her mouth, Meatlug stopped and started growling at a sword resting against a wall covered in writings. The weapon she had her focus on looked extremely familiar, and offered me hope about this trek down below.

“Yes, we are,” I smiled, running to the object to pick it up and examine it closer. “He had this in his hand the last time I saw him.”

“He did?” Reign’s brows knitted together. “You’d think I’d remember something like that.”

“Why didn’t I just stop and pay attention?” I stared at the object again, the regret and remorse churning the contents of my stomach.

I slipped the sword into a loop on Toothless’ saddle, taking care not to accidentally stab him, and Meatlug began to move again, heading down different corridors within the caves. Without her guiding us, we all likely would have gotten lost down here, with all the forks in the road and visible dead ends. Fishlegs had taught her how to track well, not to mention that Gronckles have good memories.

After a little more walking, Meatlug turned back to us, warbling in a way that almost sounded like a warning. She was already flying pretty fast, so the fact that her pace picked up again didn’t exactly bode well.

“What is it, girl?”

That’s when the screeching started. It was tiny and distant, and not from any dragon I recognized. The amount of distress it caused Meatlug the moment she heard it caused my hand to tighten around my lantern. At first, I saw nothing, just heard the cries of what I hoped were dragons off in the distance. I thought, maybe, they were just minding their business somewhere in the cave network… until, suddenly, a flock of tiny, white dragons came shooting up from below Meatlug, flying straight for us.

“And what is that?” Snotlout cried.

They proved to be pretty aggressive, circling around all our heads and screeching in our ears, unrelenting. Though I was mainly focused on protecting my head, I managed to look up long enough to realize I recognized their appearance. They just looked like the Night Terrors, but with white scales and pink eyes—and they were much angrier than the ones we’d formed an alliance with.

“I’ll tell you what they are. They’re a gaggle of Smidvargs.” Tuffnut didn’t appear discouraged by the dragons, and neither did his sister.

“A bevy of Smidvargs.”

“Some would say a bonanza, a symphony, a cacophony of Smidvargs!”

Thankfully, the others’ dragons caught up with them, and started firing and screaming in order to scare the things off.

“Stay with your dragons!” I ordered after Toothless saved me from one of the little dragons that got a bit too close. “Do not try to battle these guys—“ Snotlout’s screaming momentarily interrupted me, and I watched as two of the white Night Terrors picked him up and dangled him in the air by his legs. “—on your own. They’re not like Smidvarg. They’re wild and aggressive.”

“Maybe you should’ve said that first?” he snapped. “Help me!” Hookfang responded by slamming his body against the ceiling, causing rocks and boulders to come tumbling down. Thankfully, this was enough to scare the white Night Terrors and get them to drop Snotlout, causing Reign and I to run to his side.

“Snotlout! Are you okay?” He offered Reign and I a thumbs-up following her question.

Barf and Belch shot out an explosive fire ball to scare off three of the little dragons, but in the process, it also hit the top of the cave, causing it to shake violently. The amount of force that had been applied to the delicate surface threatened to bring it tumbling down, meaning that if Fishlegs was in here, we needed to get to him soon.

But, there just wasn’t enough time.

“We need to get out of here!” Reign cried, using her shield to block a few rocks that came tumbling for her head.

“Back the way we came.” I couldn’t quite remember all the correct turns, but hopefully, there was something in the back of my mind that could help with adequate guesses. Of all the places to get stuck, this was definitely one of the worst.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get very far. The force with which the cave shook caused boulders to come down right in front of us, creative a cave-in that not only separated us from our dragons, but also prevented us from being able to escape back out the mouth of the cave. Things weren’t looking good for us, but it was important to stay calm; panicking would do nothing to help us find a new way out.

“They’ll find their way out,” I assured my fellow Riders, keeping them from worrying about their dragons.

“I’m not worried about them,” Snotlout trembled, pointing up above us. My eyes slowly drifted upward, coming into contact with dozens of beady, pink eyes staring down at us through the darkness, ready to strike.

Toothless began to blast at those that dared to come down closer, but all of us were quickly overwhelmed by the clearly territorial species.

“Hiccup, there’s too many of them,” Reign lamented, batting away one that grabbed onto some of her hair.

“And it’s glorious! Whoo!” The twins cheered. I turned my attention to Toothless, watching as he fired one last plasma blast, then attempted to build up another one, only to come up short. For the first time in a while, Toothless had reached his shot limit.

“He’s out!”

Right as the albino Night Terrors started to close in on us, Fishlegs came running out from below our eye line, banging two small axes together. The clanging noise caused the small dragons to squeal in pain and cover their ear holes, momentarily disoriented. The weights pressing down on my chest released themselves suddenly, revealing that Fishlegs was actually more than okay.

“Fishlegs!” I cried out, relieved. The moment he spotted me, a big grin stretched onto his face.

“Hiccup!” His hug briefly squeezed the life out of me, but I didn’t care. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys where I was going. It’s just that—“ His eyes widened suddenly, prompting him to pick the axes he had previously discarded back up. “Oh, we can talk about this later.”

Fishlegs repeatedly hit the weapons together near Snotlout’s head, causing his friend to clutch his ears and grow dizzy, swaying back and forth. Everyone ignored the twins egging him on, instead using their praise as encouragement to start imitating Fishlegs’ method—just without hurting Snotlout. The fact he collapsed to the ground a second later was proof he’d been through enough today.

“These guys are real persistent,” Tuff observed.

“They’re just protecting me,” Fishlegs revealed, confirming his ‘personal project’ at least had something to do with these guys.

“We can use the axes to keep them at bay until we find another way out,” Reign suggested, already readying her sword and shield to be used in place of the other weapons.

“Follow me, guys. I’ll get us out of here.”

We put our full trust in Fishlegs, given that he had been down here longer and more often than the rest of us; besides, I ended up having to steer Snotlout in the right direction while he dealt with fending off the sound distortion that made him dizzy. Interestingly enough, Fishlegs took us down the way he had emerged, giving us a militia’s worth of shields, swords, and axes. Perfect.

“Hurry! Grab what you can!” Fishlegs encouraged. “I know how to get us out of here.”

“Great! Which way?” He pointed straight ahead of us, but the path was blocked by some of the albino Night Terrors. How many of these guys were there?

“That way.”

What other choice did we have?

Without thinking twice, Fishlegs pushed ahead, prompting the rest of us to charge through and bang together the metal in our hands. Combined with Meatlug’s and Toothless’ occasional fire, the albino White Terrors backed off and ran away from our group. Our leader brought us into a larger alcove, revealing a throne and a rope that led up to what appeared to be a trap door.

So _that’s_ what he had been working on.

Two more albino Night Terrors came flying at Fishlegs, but when he hit the axes in his hands together, they completely ignored it this time, even going so far as to scoop up the weapons and carry them away.

“They’re getting used to the sounds. We’ve gotta get to that hook, Hiccup.”

“How?” One of the small dragons flew past my head, stopping short in front of Fishlegs and squawking triumphantly.

“Darkvarg! Yes!” Thankfully, it didn’t appear this one was here to hurt us. Fishlegs’ affectionate name for the little thing proved as much. “Can you help us out, boy?” Darkvarg squealed in agreement, then flew at the few albino Night Terrors blocking the rig attached to the door. “He cleared a path for us! Hiccup, the sword!”

Acting fast, I threw the sword we’d picked up at the entrance to the cave in Fishlegs’ direction. Even though I overshot it slightly, he used a couple of raised stones to vault himself into the air, catching the weapon and swinging it down to sever the rope in one swift, heroic move.

Sunlight came streaming in through the hole created by the absence of the trap door, causing the albino Night Terrors to cower in fear. Fishlegs had used his knowledge to give us an escape route! Quickly, I called for Toothless, and helped Reign up onto his back the moment he bounded over in our direction. We ended up having to pick up Snotlout, but eventually, all of us were able to escape. The other dragons were already waiting for us outside, eager to see their riders once again.

I turned around to compliment Fishlegs, but he and Meatlug had already disappeared, taking leave at their hut. Reign and I found him cleaning and polishing the sword we’d taken from the cave, keeping his interest focused almost entirely on the weapon. The two of us stood there a moment, waiting to see if he’d notice our presence, but when nothing changed, I cleared my throat, causing his gaze to snap up.

“How’s it going?” The smile that crossed his face eased me into a bit of contentment.

“Just trying to make sense of this sword,” he shrugged. Both of us paused a moment, and I watched out of the corner of my eye as Reign stepped back, giving us our space.

“Listen, I wanted to—“ My girlfriend’s snicker was pretty clear as Fishlegs and I spoke at the same time.

“Me first, Hiccup.” Fishlegs took a deep breath, preparing himself for the words that were about to spill forth. “As hard as it was for me to hear what you said yesterday… you were right. If I had been stronger with Snotlout and the twins… we wouldn’t have put the group in jeopardy by losing the Nightmare gel.”

“Fishlegs…” He shrugged and turned away a little.

“I don’t know how you two do it. You lead by example, not by fear, or bossing people around. I have a long way to go before I learn how to do that.”

“Fishlegs, listen to me,” I insisted, finally getting him to turn back toward me. “We can barely control those guys on our best days.”

An explosion shook the world around us, creating a plume of black smoke and crackling fire behind the twins’ hut. Wonderful…

“Was that—“

“Our new supply of Monstrous Nightmare gel, which proves my point,” I sighed. “Anyway, I should not have come down on you, okay? I was wrong. You showed true leadership in those caves. With the Night Terrors, and then with us. Fishlegs, I would never hesitate to put you in charge.”

Both of us nodded to each other, dismissing the last bits of animosity pushing us apart.

“Okay, now that we’re done with that, can I ask you something serious?”

“Sure.”

“Can we take a minute to geek out over the Albino Night Terrors and this sword? I mean, come on!”

A laugh sounded behind the two of us, and we looked over to see Reign waving her hand in our direction and turning on her heel to walk away.

“I’ll leave you both to it,” she chuckled. “Besides, someone has to go chew out the twins for wasting resources again.”

Right before she got away, I strode over and grabbed onto her wrist, pulling her back closer to me.

“I’ll make it up to you later. I promise.” She clicked her tongue and shook her head.

“Trust me, Hiccup. You need this. I don’t mind.” Reign detached herself from me and leaned over my side, throwing Fishlegs a wink. “Now, excuse me, gentlemen, as I go do what I do best: intimidate my own soldiers.”

That was another secret to great leadership: having a strong woman to lead beside you. I couldn’t be more grateful she was the one I ended up with.


	31. Turn and Burn (Reign)

I swung my legs back and forth while I bit down on my tongue, attempting to keep the comments spinning around in my mouth from escaping out as Hiccup pounded away on what was quite possibly his most dangerous invention. I had sort of hoped we’d be able to spend the day working on things that involved a bit more flying on our dragons, because it was such a nice day, but Hiccup had begged for at least a little time working in the forge. The moment he told me what he wanted to work on, I rolled my eyes, but the way his eyes lit up when he tinkered with the thing wasn’t something I wanted to take away from him. Besides, it wasn’t so bad that him working meant I’d get a little time to just sit and relax.

The sun had moved to sit straight above our heads when Hiccup finally stepped back from his work bench and held up the dark red flaps of fabric held together by poles of metal that shimmered under the afternoon light. Toothless yawned before his rider got the chance to turn around, causing me to snicker.

“So? What do you think, bud?” Hiccup turned to his dragon first, who groaned and looked away from the thing, demonstrating his displeasure. “What? No love for the old Dragonfly Two?” Briefly, he glanced at me, but I just stuck my eyebrows up, reminding him of my disapproval of the death trap. “Oh, come on. You love these wings. They let me fly beside you, they put us in precarious situations that you always have to save me from.” Hiccup’s attempts at persuading his dragon reaped no rewards.

“Yeah, it’s that second part that makes me _far_ less fond of that thing.” I gestured sloppily to the Dragonfly Two. “If you could eliminate those risks, I’d just call it useful, instead of ‘vaguely helpful, but mostly heart-attack-inducing.’” As I spoke, I pushed myself up from my seat and moved closer to him, resting an arm around his shoulders when I delivered the criticism.

“Yes, thank you for your input, Reign.” Naturally, he wasn’t listening, far too focused on the excitement of his invention. “All right, I think this is probably gonna need some welding. Hey bud, can you fire up the forge?”

“I’ll do it!”

Hiccup and I jumped back, startled, only to groan in exasperation when we looked up to see that the source of the noise was just Snotlout and Hookfang, who somehow managed to sneak up on the two of us. Given Hookfang’s massive size, the subtlety was mildly impressive—but mostly irritating.

“Oh, my!” I could still feel Hiccup’s heart pounding intensely in his chest, prompting me to move a little closer against him and gently run one hand through his hair, bringing him back down from the unnecessary fright. “Snotlout! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that?”

“Uh, well, if you count now, I would say… I don’t care.” I exhaled sharply and shook my head, doing nothing to hide my annoyance. “Let me light the forge for you.” Hookfang’s huff served as a reminder that there would be no fire without his assistance. “’Us.’ Let ‘us’ light the forge for you. Jeez, don’t be so needy.”

“Yeah, I think I’m okay,” Hiccup refused, trying to prevent some sort of major accident.

“Hiccup, aren’t you two always complaining that I never do anything around here?” Technically, he had us there. “Well, here I am. Snotlout ‘the Volunteer’ Jorgenson. Ready to do Thor’s work.”

“And that’s what I’m afraid of,” I groaned, slapping my free hand against my forehead.

“Watch and learn, Hiccup. Watch and learn. Hookfang, hit it.” Immediately, Hiccup and my eyes widened, quickly connecting the dots of what was about to happen.

“No, no, no, no! Snotlout, you have to build it gradually!”

He didn’t listen. Hookfang blew out a large stream of fire, right into the stone chimney of the forge. Without anywhere else for the rest of the flames to go, they quickly spread onto our hut, engulfing it completely. Snotlout and his dragon began to panic, with the latter forgetting he could only emit fire from his mouth and blowing out to try and douse what he’d done. Toothless and Shriek managed to get rid of the fire right in front of us by flapping her wings, and as I began to fear the rest of our hut wouldn’t make it, the twins flew in with a large bucket of water, neutralizing the threat. Before they left, Ruff and Tuff glared at Snotlout, shaking their heads.

My entire body still trembled as I moved back toward Hiccup, wrapping my arms around his waist to just have something solid to hold onto. When he rested a hand against my back and used the other to pull my head against his shoulder, the panic in my brain died down at least a little.

“They’ve changed,” Snotlout stated casually as he slid off Hookfang’s saddle.

“No, Snotlout, they haven’t changed,” Hiccup growled. “It’s just that this is over the line, even for them.”

“Relax, Hiccup. Don’t get your tunic in a bunch. Everything’s fine.” Now I felt the rage setting in.

“Oh yeah, it’s fine? It’s fine? Does this look ‘fine’ to you?” I challenged.

“I guess I’m an optimist, Reign.” Snotlout leaned against one of the charred walls of our hut, completely casual about the damage he’d caused. “I’m what you call a ‘hut half un-burned’ kind of guy.”

The pressure against the walls already weakened by fire caused the boards underneath Snotlout’s hand to go crumbling into the building. We’d definitely have to make some repairs, which wasn’t something that sounded even remotely pleasant.

“Down, Skullcrusher.”

Hiccup and I pushed away from each other, feeling awkward about the display of affection as Stoick and Skullcrusher landed on the platform in front of us. I couldn’t remember anything about Hiccup’s dad coming to visit, but that didn’t mean we weren’t warned. Terror Mails didn’t always reach me.

“Dad!” Hiccup sounded just as surprised as I was, which answered that question pretty quickly. Stoick’s raised shoulders and heavy stomps caused me to step slightly back, recognizing he was on a mission.

“We need to talk, right away,” he stated bluntly.

“Yeah, sure thing. Let me get—“

“Not you, him.” Stoick nodded his head toward Snotlout, breeding confusion in Hiccup and I. “It’s about your father. He’s completely disregarding and disobeying orders.” The three of us all moved back as Stoick began to pace. “I mean, your father has always been… well…”

“Annoying?” Snotout interjected.

“Well, that’s one word for it,” Stoick shrugged. “Insufferable is another. I mean, nothing is ever easy with that man! Always second-guessing me. Constantly trying to show me up. He once nearly burned down the village even though I told him to mind those torches in the gale winds. Can you imagine?”

Hiccup and I cast our unamused glances toward Snotlout, hearing something eerily familiar in the incident Stoick had just described.

“Huh. No, I can’t imagine that. Not even a little bit,” Hiccup deadpanned. Noticing we were looking at him, Snotlout raised his brows at us.

“What?” he asked, confused.

“Ever since he joined Astrid’s auxiliary Dragon Riders, he’s become intolerable on a whole different level.”

“Tell me about it, Chief,” Snotlout groaned.

“The man suddenly has ideas on improving everything. Most of which are considerably above his place in the tribe or station in life.”

“Way above.”

“Most recently, he’s been pushing a plan for a secret off-Berk cache of emergency food and supplies.” Despite the message Stoick was attempting to push, I actually really liked that plan, especially given the situation we were in—something I decided to voice.

“That’s actually not a bad idea.”

I instantly regretted sharing my opinion. Stoick glowered at me, his hands balling up into fists and his shoulders disappearing up into his beard. My heart jumped up into my throat, and I shrunk back a little, falling onto one of Hiccup’s arms.

“You’re taking his side now, are you?” I stuttered, wide-eyed, unsure of what to say. There were very few things that terrified me to this level, but angering the man I knew would be my future father-in-law was definitely near the top of that list.

“Uh… No, no. Uh, I just—“

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Stoick confirmed, further confusing me, “if he didn’t persist on telling it to me four times a day. I mean, how could he be so unaware and pig-headed?”

“Welcome to my world.” All three of us glared at Snotlout, eyebrows raised, before Stoick finally decided to get back to his point.

“Anyway, I finally told the old pain in my buttocks to go ahead and start searching. He’s taken a number of reconnaissance trips as of late. Then, he went on his most recent expedition.”

“And…?”

“He hasn’t returned.”

To the rest of us, this was a concerning statement, eliciting worry about what Spitelout could have possibly run into, but for the man’s son, it appeared to be absolutely no cause for alarm.

“Relax, chief. He’s a Jorgenson. He can take care of himself.”

“It’s been a month, son.”

That finally struck up Snotlout’s alarm.

“A month?” he shouted. “You didn’t say it was a month? That’s my dad out there!”

“Okay, dad, do you have any idea where Spitelout might have gone?” Hiccup asked, trying to diffuse the rising panic of the situation.

“No, he was too secretive. I did find this.” Stoick removed a small piece of parchment from a pouch on his belt, presenting it out to the three of us. I tried my best to figure out what exactly we were looking at, but the writing on it didn’t look like it was written in any of our known languages. “Can you help me decipher it?”

“It’s clearly some sort of coded map,” I sighed, scanning my eyes over the nonsense over and over again.

“I’ve seen this before. But it’s not code. It’s just my dad’s bad handwriting and terrible grammar,” Snotlout revealed, scoffing at the writing on the page in front of him. “Why would you dangle a participle like that? And the penmanship.” Stoick groaned in exasperation.

“Just tell me where to look, and—“

“I’m going with you,” Snotlout insisted. “I can’t stay here if my dad’s in trouble. What kind of son would I be? Besides, I can rub it in his face for once. What a muttonhead.”

Hiccup and I briefly glanced at each other, rolling our eyes at Snotlout’s motivations, before focusing back on Stoick.

“Right. Uh, we better tag along for back-up.”

Before his father could protest, Hiccup and I jumped on our dragons, actually allowing Snotlout to lead the way to wherever his dad had marked off. The tension from earlier still hung on tight, and I couldn’t stop focusing on the fact that Hiccup and I just had more work to do when we got back, no thanks to our current leader. My posture must’ve tipped off what was going on in my mind to Hiccup, because he and Toothless flew a little closer, and he reached out to take my hand, holding it tight in his for the remainder of the flight.

“We’ll get everything done, hon,” he assured me, allowing a little smile to cross his face.

“At this point, I’m not so sure about that,” I sighed, shaking my head. “It feels like every time we finish something, another task comes up, and then another, and then there’s some problem that we have to solve, like right now.” The sheer volume of it all made me feel overwhelmed. “I can’t even think about it without my heart going nuts.”

“Hey, hey.” Hiccup looked forward a moment, making sure neither of our other companions were listening. “Come here.”

Carefully, I stood up on the back of Shriek, bending my knees, and without letting the fear of falling creep in, I jumped onto Toothless, sliding onto the back of the large saddle. Hiccup made sure to lock Toothless’ tail fin into place, then he turned himself around and gently slid me onto his lap, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

“Everything that we’re doing now, is so that we don’t have to worry about the future. We have to be prepared for Viggo’s next attack. But, if we do it now, then everything he does after, we’ll be ready for. I know it’s chaos now, but it’ll be worth it.”

That wasn’t quite what I’d been hoping for, but I wasn’t quite sure why I set my expectations so high. Hiccup’s mind had been almost exclusively dedicated to Viggo and the Hunters. I didn’t want to lie and tell him I thought he was right, but discouraging him wouldn’t go any better, so I just rested the side of my head against his shoulder. The two of us sat like that for a while, providing the little bit of comfort we needed in the moment. At some point, I decided I should get back on my own dragon, so I kissed him briefly, then jumped onto Shriek’s back and settled back down onto her saddle. It was then Hiccup and I noticed Snotlout and Hookfang constantly speeding up, nearly leaving us behind on a couple of occasions. Concerned, the two of us got our dragons to catch up with him.

“Snotlout, I’m sure your dad is fine.” I offered him a smile, hoping it would help calm him. “And we will find him.”

“I know he’s fine, guys. He’s my dad and he’s a Jorgenson.” The way he looked away didn’t really cement his point for me.

Thankfully, an island finally appeared on the horizon, resembling the crude drawing Spitelout had left for Stoick. With a renewed sense of optimism, the four of us sped up and flew overhead, taking note of a building in the middle of a clearing. It definitely looked big enough to serve as a storehouse, and stood surprisingly strong and well-built. Unfortunately, there was so sign of Spitelout nearby, and once we landed and I took a peek inside, I only saw shields, weapons, and barrels of food… but no Spitelout.

Once I turned around, the four of us heard a low growl, and Stoick gestured to something off to our left. I’m sure all of us expected to see Spitelout’s Nadder, or maybe another dragon native to the island that he was taking care of, but instead, we were just left confused and dumbfounded when we came across some sort of elaborate trap, rigged with a yak as the bait. Hopefully, that meant Spitelout was alive.

Snotlout moved a little closer to our focal point, familiarity flashing over his face.

“What is it?” Hiccup inquired.

“I’m having Asia Fondue. Something seems oddly familiar.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh and roll my eyes at Snotlout, realizing he’d completely butchered a phrase the rest of us used pretty frequently.

“Snotlout, are you trying to say ‘déjà vu?’” A little laugh involuntarily escaped through my words.

“Yeah, that’s what I said.” Once Hiccup and I approached the machine, Snotlout cried out triumphantly.

“Of course. It’s a Jorgenson Yakmaster!” he exclaimed. “Nice work, Dad!” Though he knew exactly what the device was, nothing was clarified for the rest of us.

“Okay. Uh, care to fill us in, or…” I trailed off, waiting for some sort of explanation.

“The Jorgenson Yakmaster is a specifically designed—“

Unfortunately, as Snotlout began to explain, he walked around, accidentally tripping the rope that activated the thing. Hiccup and I were just a little too close to the net hidden in the ground, causing all three of us to get scooped up and jammed together, along with our dragons.

“—dragon trap.” I scoffed and yanked my arm away from Snotlout’s grasp, already feeling uncomfortable because I was crushed between him and Hiccup. Using the person below me as leverage, I pushed my legs out, moving Snotlout as far away from me as possible.

“Would you stop that?” I snapped. “That is not your arm. That is my arm!”

“Son, Reign, are you all right?” Stoick asked, running up to the net.

“No!” Snotlout cried, despite not being the person Stoick was focused on.

“We’re fine, Dad,” Hiccup groaned, shaking his head.

“Get us out of here!”

“Well, if I could just reach my sword without stabbing one of you two, we’d be out of here by now.” Snotlout wriggled again, completely contradicting what I’d just said. “Snotlout, that means you have to stop fidgeting!”

Snotlout’s frantic, rapid movements must have triggered something else in the trap, because suddenly, the yak bait was flung away from the trap completely, and all of us were crushed even further together, leaving me absolutely no room to get my weapon without running a person or a dragon through.

“Hey, so why does your dad have a dragon trap, anyway?” Hiccup asked. How could he focus on anything besides trying to get out of this absolutely horrific situation.

Hiccup’s question was answered just a second later, when a vaguely familiar, highly threatening dragon roar sounded over our heads.

“Oh, my Thor,” Snotlout quivered.

The source of the cry revealed itself just seconds later, when a large, bright orange dragon circled around on the horizon, flapping its four wings furiously. Though it was difficult to confirm, due to the distance between us and it, I had a feeling it had its eyes on us, circling its prey. That probably would’ve been the thing that scared me most, had I not noticed the fact the end of its tail was _literally on fire_.

“Odin’s ghost!” Stoick exclaimed, watching the dragon circle around.

“We’re gonna die. We’re all gonna die. We’re all gonna die!” Hiccup and I shook our heads, exasperated, as Snotlout continued to scream and rattle the net.

“Not if we have anything to say about it!”

I figured, maybe, Stoick would cut us down so that we could help, but instead, he just hopped up onto Skullcrusher and flew straight for the dragon. Whatever breed this was, it thought fast and struck faster, hitting Stoick and Skullcrusher with a fireball from its tail before the pair could even get close. Of course, they weren’t one to give up, and the chief followed closely behind, waiting for the right moment before he had Skullcrusher fire back, momentarily scaring the dragon away.

We all knew the dragon would be back, but at least for now, we were safe. With his job finished, Stoick landed back in front of us, eyeing the creature before turning to the net, axe prepped in his hand. Snotlout panicked again, frantically asking what he was doing, but Hiccup and I just remained calm and trusted his dad.

But, before Stoick got the chance to cut us down, the dragon came right back, circling around once before heading right for all of us. Stoick prepared to defend all of us, but it didn’t become necessary. Right as the dragon shot out four fireballs from… somewhere on its body, a colorful Nadder came swooping across its field of vision, deflecting the fire while distracting the beast.

At least we knew Spitelout was still here.

“I’ve seen that dragon before, I just can’t remember where,” Hiccup muttered as the dragon started to chase Spitelout around the island.

“Who cares?” Snotlout shouted right in my ear, causing me to flinch—something I didn’t exactly have room to do. “Whatever it is, it’s chasing my dad.”

“Go, Skullcrusher!” Stoick and his dragon headed off to follow the pair already chasing a clearly dangerous dragon.

“…And now my dad is chasing it,” Hiccup sighed.

The longer I sat there, listening to Hiccup and Snotlout talking about their dads, the more a strange sensation began to grow in my stomach. I’d tried to put my family out of my mind lately, but they kept coming back, screaming reminders from deep within. In particular, since remembering the games I used to play with my father, I’d been trying to recall any detail of what he looked like, who he was, how he sounded… yet, I was left with nothing.

As reckless as both Hiccup’s and Snotlout’s fathers were, at least they were there.

Snotlout continued to struggle while Hiccup and I tried to get him to, for the love of Thor, just stop, until both their dads landed. Stoick looked a little scratched up and bruised, but overall, neither of them looked like they’d been severely hurt by the dragon.

“Whoa,” Spitelout laughed, gleeful from the hunt. “Some beast, eh? Been tangling with it for the last—“

“That’s all you’ve got to say, Spitelout?” Stoick seethed. “’Some beast?’ You almost got us singed alive!”

“I tried to warn you about the tail, Stoick. But as usual, you paid no attention, and did what you wished.”

“I did what I wished?”

All of a sudden, Hiccup sat up a little straighter, excitement coming over his eyes.

“Singetail!” Everyone slowly turned their gazes to him, wildly confused. “What? I remembered the name of the dragon.”

“That would have been helpful five minutes ago, son. But at least it would’ve been helpful.” Spitelout rolled his eyes at Stoick’s completely obvious jab.

“You know, I’m wracking my brain, Stoick, but I don’t recall asking you to come here.”

“When you disappeared for a month, I took it as an invite.” Though I wasn’t a fan of the way it was delivered, I actually agreed with Stoick’s sentiment.

“Oh, don’t pretend to care about me. You never have and you never will.” The way the two men got up close to each other, fists clenched and weapons ready to be swung, made my heart beat wildly with unease. These two weren’t exactly the kinds of people I saw exercising restraint when they got angry at someone.

“Anytime you wanna quit arguing, so we could get out of this thing before—“

Snotlout never got the chance to finish his sentence. Stoick abruptly removed his axe from his belt and chucked it behind him, thankfully managing to only hit the rope suspending the net. The three of us and our dragons went crashing down, and the moment he recognized we’d hit the ground, Hiccup made his way over, inspecting for injuries. I scoffed and held out a single rope burn, assuring him no major damage had been done.

“Uh, that was a little close, Chief,” Snotlout remarked as he dusted himself off. “Do you see any blood?”

“Snotlout, you’re fine,” I grumbled.

“Doesn’t matter, son,” Spitelout quickly contradicted. “Stoick is allowed to take whatever ridiculous chances he likes. It’s the rest of us who have to stay in line.”

“Good point, Dad.” Hiccup glared at Snotlout, resting his hands on his hips. “What? You’re gonna try and tell me Stoick’s not a total control freak? Hmph.”

“He’s the chief,” Hiccup argued. “And he wouldn’t have to be a ‘control freak’ if others weren’t so out of control. Your father’s like some kind of reckless renegade.”

“Reckless renegade? Reckless renegade? You know what?” The anger momentarily left Snotlout’s face. “I like that.”

“Well, you would.”

Realizing there was a member of this group that still hadn’t spoken up, four pairs of eyes turned to stare at me, blinking and waiting for some sort of answer. I suddenly felt scrutinized, sticking my hands up in surrender. Truthfully, I wanted to say that both sons acted like their fathers, but that could easily be misconstrued and twisted, so I just huffed and shook my head.

“Don’t look at me,” I stated, maybe a bit harshly. “I’ve never seen anything weird in anyone’s behavior because I grew up with it.”

When I didn’t take any one side or the other, Spitelout just turned on his heel and started to walk away.

“Come on, boy-o. I’ll show you around the place,” he offered. “At least one of you will appreciate my work.”

The father and son remained in earshot of Hiccup, Stoick, and I as Spitelout began to explain his thoughts behind building the storehouse out here—something that very quickly became evidently on purpose.

“When I found this place, boy-o, I knew it was perfect. I was about to head back to Berk, when I thought… ‘All that’s gonna happen is Stoick is gonna insist on seeing it. And then he’s going to want to see my plans to construct it. And then he’s going to want to change those plans. Again. And again. And again. And again. And again.’” Hiccup and Stoick shrugged at each other. “By the time all that transpired, I could build the darn thing myself. So, I did.”

“Ha! That’s right you did,” Snotlout encouraged. “Well, I think it’s amazing, Dad.” Unfortunately, Stoick just couldn’t help himself, feeling like he had to intervene.

“First of all, I wouldn’t have picked an island with a fire-happy dragon to build a structure out of wood. Another ill-conceived Jorgenson special.” I jumped as Spitelout tossed his axe over his shoulder, startled.

“I checked the island, over and over for anything that might get in the way of the construction,” he informed the chief. “That Singetail only arrived after it was finished! Came out of nowhere, started setting fires all over the island.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hey, as far as I’m concerned, it’s got the Jorgenson stamp of approval. I mean, it’s even got the ‘S’ on it for ‘Spitelout.’” Or for… ‘Snotlout?’” Spitelout blinked at his son, unimpressed.

“Uh, storehouse, boy-o,” he corrected. “The ‘S’ is for ‘storehouse.’” Snotlout paused for a moment, his eyes bouncing around as he attempted to save face.

“Ha! I knew that.”

Shaking my head, I focused back on the dragon we’d been worrying about. The behavior Spitelout mentioned actually wasn’t something too uncommon in wild dragons.

“You say the Singetail has been setting fires all over the island?” I inquired.

“Aye.”

“It’s obviously trying to mark its territory.” From the corner of my eye, I saw Hiccup smile proudly.

“The storehouse was here first!”

“You should go explain that to the Singetail, I’m sure he’ll be very understanding,” I deadpanned, rolling my eyes at the stubborn man.

“Save your breath,” Stoick instructed, “because we’re not staying.” I quickly stepped out of the way when Snotlout stepped up behind his dad, and the two of them glared at Stoick and Hiccup. No way was I about to get in the middle of this.

“You would never abandon something you built with your own two hands, Stoick. Bit of a double standard, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, when was the last time you Haddocks gave us Jorgensons any respect?”

To be fair, the last time Snotlout tried to help out, he lit Hiccup and my hut on fire.

“Respect is earned, son,” Stoick growled, his expression growing threateningly close to the way he looked before charging into battle. I’d had about enough of all this.

“Okay. Okay.” I stepped back in between the pairs of father-and-son, sticking my arms out to prevent anyone from getting too close to another. “Uh, everyone has their opinions. Not saying which ones are correct. Obviously, Spitelout thought this location was a good one.”

“It is a good one!” he insisted.

“Yeah. It is a good one.”

“And… And he says he was on the island first so we should give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Wrong. Very wrong. I hadn’t chosen my wording carefully enough.

“’Benefit of the doubt?’” Spitelout scoffed. “Either you believe me or you don’t.”

“You calling my dad a liar?”

“Yes.” Quickly, I corrected myself, blaming that slip on the intimidation I was facing. “I mean, no. I mean, look. There are five of us and five dragons. I think that if we work together, we can run that dragon off and save the storehouse.” Very subtly, Hiccup threw me a thumbs-up, causing me to smile.

The moment died just as fast as it came, when a fireball came shooting down from the sky, destroying a barrel and lighting the grass up. The Singetail had announced its presence, and was now circling around us. The five of us tried to run for our dragons, but the Singetail caught on and created a line of fire in front of us, preventing our movements and allowing it to shoot at the storehouse. A few massive holes were created in the structure, but the thing wasn’t actively burning, so I figured it wasn’t as important right now.

“We have to get in the air! He’ll pick us off down here,” Hiccup warned. “Next time he passes by, get to your dragons.”

“I’m not waiting for that beast to destroy what’s ours!”

Spitelout and Snotlout jumped up onto their dragons, taking to the sky and charging after the Singetail. They disobeyed orders, but if it caught the dragon off-guard and helped get him out of here, I’d take it.

“And what on Thor’s green earth makes you think they’ll listen to you?” Stoick scoffed.

Not wanting to risk making things worse, Hiccup just slid onto Toothless, prompting Stoick and I to get on our dragons. Spitelout’s Nadder and Hookfang were actually making good work of distracting the Singetail, rendering it unable to fire for a moment as both their dragons came down on him. It appeared sufficiently disabled, but the moment Hiccup, Stoick, and I got close to it, his eyeballs turned all the way back and it shot the fireballs at us from his tail. Realizing it had been tricked, the Singetail fired two very purposeful shots, knocking Stoick and Spitelout right off their dragons. Thankfully, Hiccup and Snotlout managed to catch their dads in time, and all of us landed back on the island, recognizing that we needed to change up our strategy.

“That thing had eyes on the back of its head!” Snotlout screamed, pointing up toward the sky.

“And it can attack with both its tail and mouth,” Hiccup added.

Spitelout’s Nadder and Skullcrusher landed, catching up with their riders, and the two Vikings immediately jumped onto their backs.

“Come on! We can take him, boy-o,” Spitelout encouraged confidently.

“No, Spitelout! Look, he’s an unconventional dragon. Which means we have to fight him unconventionally. It’s too strong to take on from the front or behind. The only place it might be vulnerable is below it. The belly of the beat.” Thankfully, Spitelout didn’t protest Hiccup’s strategy.

“Okay, I’ll draw it out. Boy-o, you get in there and take the shot.”

I felt like Hookfang maybe was a bit too big for that. And based on the way Snotlout gawked at his dad for a second, he probably agreed.

“What?” He rubbed the back of his neck, then collected himself. “Yeah. I’ll take the shot.”

“Guys, Toothless is the fastest and has the most accurate blast. We should take the shot.”

“I don’t like it. I know this dragon. It should be us.”

“No. Hiccup is right,” his father interjected. “The four of us draw it out, and Toothless takes the shot. End of story.”

I wasn’t about to argue with that. Though Shriek was fast and could get nearly anywhere, her fireball took quite a bit of wind up and force, and once she unleashed it, she usually needed to rest for a while, so that wasn’t a viable or safe option.

The Singetail had already marked a large majority of the island. Nearly the entire norther quadrant of the forest had been reduced to orange flames and ashy tree trunks. Large, hot plumed of black smoke drifted a little too close to us and our dragons, causing me to cough occasionally.

“See what I mean? The thing sets fires everywhere it goes.”

“Definitely marking its territory,” Stoick confirmed. I looked back down at the pattern of fires, finding something strange in the way they were laid out. A dragon wouldn’t mark its territory this loosely, at least as far as I remembered.

“But if the Singetail were marking its territory, the fires would be more concentrated,” I pointed out. “Something’s wrong.”

Though I remained suspicious, we eventually caught up with the Singetail. Hiccup and Toothless ducked underneath the rest of our group, while we took to distracting it. Skullcrusher, Hookfang, and Spitelout’s Nadder all shot it with fire, while Shriek repeatedly unleashed sonic booms, disorienting it. I thought we’d done sufficient work, but when Toothless and Hiccup came up under the dragon, it snapped its head down and, by some miracle of science, shot fire down from its belly. The two of them managed to get out of the way in time, but when we were forced to land again, I still rushed over to him, worried he’d managed to sustain a burn I couldn’t see. He grabbed my hand, trying to calm me down, and kept it in his own, despite the fact we generally tried to keep signs of affection minimal around the adults.

“What were you doing up there?” Stoick looked about two steps away from having steam literally shoot out of his ears when he marched up to Spitelout.

“What are you going on about?”

“You said you knew this dragon. Yet you conveniently forgot to tell us about its underbelly.”

“Oh, you think I knew about it and would set you up?” Spitelout chuckled bitterly.

“I never know how far you Jorgensons will go.”

Hiccup and I looked at each other with wide eyes. Of all the lines that had been crossed today, that was, by far, the worst. Hiccup instantly released himself from my side and made his way to his dad, trying to shut everything down again.

“Dad.” Stoick stuck up his hand, silencing and halting his son in his tracks.

“Well, there it is, then.” Spitelout crossed his arms, almost smug that Stoick had finally admitted the horrible truth he’d been hiding.

“I’ve had enough of this dragon and this place. We leave at first light. Contrary to other thinking, our lives are not worth an empty building.”

“Go, then,” Spitelout urged. “The three of you. We’re staying.”

I’d expected Snotlout to agree with his dad and stay put, given how similar the two were, but he actually questioned the move, confused by his dad’s insistence on staying with what could quickly become a lost cause.

“Jorgensons don’t go where they’re not wanted or trusted.” Spitelout’s words were biting, but they did nothing to change Stoick’s demeanor. “We’ll stay here, protect what’s ours.”

“Fine! If that’s the way you want it.”

“It’s the way it has to be.” Hiccup made one last-ditch effort. Even if we didn’t get along with him all the time, neither of us wanted Snotlout to be put in danger.

“Hey, Dad? Do you think we should reconsider?”

“Nonsense.” Stoick didn’t even hesitate. “Tired of his pigheadedness. Gets us nowhere, and puts us in danger.” When his efforts with his dad failed, Hiccup focused on the father and son across from us.

“Snotlout, Spitelout, this is ridiculous.”

Neither of them spoke a word.

“Right.”

Before we took off, Hiccup and Stoick wanted to collected themselves and get their dragons back together, so we went to a part of the woods that hadn’t been burnt. The who time, I felt this twitching irritation crawling through me, making me flex and clench my fingers. I wanted to peel off my own skin just to get away from the sensation, but the overwhelmingly logical part of me cautioned otherwise. I thought I’d made myself look fairly inconspicuous, just leaning against Shriek like I was waiting for them to be done, but Hiccup knew me better than that.

“Reign?” He kept his voice low when he came to stand in front of me, not wanting to bring whatever was about to happen to his dad. “What’s going on?” At first, I shook my head, not wanting to be an inconvenience, but he always had a way of getting it out of me.

“This whole thing is just so… infuriating.” Hiccup sighed loudly.

“Yeah. My dad and Spitelout are really the worst sometimes.”

Boom. That set me off like cannon fire.

“I’m talking about you and Snotlout.” Surprised, Hiccup stepped back a little, gawking at me with wide eyes.

“What?”

“You two always complain about how terrible your dads are, and how awful the others’ dad is. And I never want to play something that could be a ‘guilt’ card, but I’m doing it now because it’s driving me up the wall. You’re both so ungrateful for your dads, but you don’t even realize how lucky you are to have them. The only things I remember about my dad are flashes, and the important things have been blacked out; I can’t remember any note of his voice, his face is just a void to me. The only things I have are distant childhood memories and the things your dad and Gobber have told me about him. I can’t understand why you all can’t just buck up and get along, because you actually have the chance to do it.”

Hiccup stared for another moment, remaining completely silent, allowing him to process everything I’d said. The minute the adrenaline died down, the frustration started to melt into guilt, mixing up into a pot of negative emotions I didn’t want to grapple with. It wasn’t until Hiccup pressed himself close against me, using one hand to hold my cheek and the other to move some of my hair from my face that something positive started to work its way in.

“Reign, I… I had no idea. I wish you had said something, but…” Hiccup shook his head. “That’s not important. I know that there’s nothing I can do about the past, and I can’t bring back what’s been lost, but I promise you, I’m going to try my best to make the future something to fix all of that. And I’m so sorry my constant complaining about my dad made it all worse. I’ll try my best from now on to be more conscious about that.”

“No, no, don’t… don’t think that you can’t talk things through just because of what I said. I guess I just needed to get it off my chest.” Warmth settled in me as he rested his forehead against mine.

“You’re more important.”

Briefly, he kissed me, holding me close against him, then we confirmed to Stoick that we were ready to go. The three of us mounted our dragons and took off as the sun began to slip beneath the horizon, but we hadn’t gotten very far before Stoick spoke up again.

“It’s him, right?” Hiccup and I just remained silent. “Taking unnecessary chances time and time again.”

“Well, that does have a familiar ring to it,” Hiccup shrugged.

“Well, maybe this will teach him a lesson. He has to learn, you know? Act like a child all you want, but you’re a grown man. And grown men must deal with real consequences of their actions.” Interestingly enough, Hiccup just kept staring at his dad, not agreeing with him—at least, not directly. “What is it, son? Speak your mind.”

“Look, Snotlout is pretty much the same way as Spitelout.”

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Stoick said bitterly.

“And it certainly seems that he is constantly doing the opposite of what I want him to do.”

“Disobeying every single order.”

“Trying to ‘one up’ and show off.”

“Couldn’t have put it better myself.”

The way Hiccup smiled told me this wasn’t going to end up trailing in the direction Stoick thought.

“The thing is, in this particular case, who are they trying to show off to?” Suddenly, Stoick was at a loss for words. “Well, what I’m trying to say is, what if all their craziness and disobedience had nothing to do with them and everything to do with us? Just… Just think about it.” Hiccup momentarily flashed his gaze in my direction. “Snotlout’s incident with the forge, that could be directly tied with his desire to prove himself to me in his own little twisted way. And Spitelout—“

“What? Put us at risk over something so inane as a storehouse that could have been built anywhere at any time?” That wasn’t quite it.

“No, Dad, don’t you get it? Spitelout built the storehouse to prove himself to you.”

Finally, something worked. Stoick threw his hands up and screamed in frustration, but turned Skullcrusher around, facing back toward the island.

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

The fires on the island had grown much worse, practically consuming any flammable surface nearby. At first, I wondered how one Singetail could possibly have done this much damage… until a cloud of smoke cleared away, revealing another dragon of the same species had arrived, aiding in the destruction of the island. Our three dragons fired warning shots at the two Singetails, giving us enough room to land on the top of the storehouse, joining Snotlout and Spitelout. The two stared at us with confusion, but there really wasn’t time for anything.

“What? You wanna save what’s yours or not?”

Stoick and Spitelout led the charge toward the circling Singetails, doing everything we could to at least keep them at bay while we came up with a more viable plan.

“Where did the second one come from?” I shouted over the dragons firing.

“I don’t know,” Snotlout admitted. “Maybe it was drawn to the fires?”

Bingo.

That’s why the fires didn’t align with the patterns of a dragon marking territory!

“Yes! That’s it, Snotlout,” I cheered. “It wasn’t marking its territory with the fires. It was calling for back-up!”

“Well, the five of us can take down two Singetails,” Stoick stated confidently. Unfortunately, the optimism was misplaced.

“What about three?” My eyes drifted up behind Snotlout, acknowledging that another Singetail had now arrived to help the other two.

“Or four?” Hiccup and Toothless moved aside to reveal another bright orange dragon heading right for us.

By the second, more and more of them were showing up, officially outnumbering us and all focusing their fire on either us or the storehouse. I hated to deem anything a lost cause, but at this point, trying to fight for this thing was too great a safety risk.

“Dad!” Hiccup cried out, trying to get him to retreat.

“No! We stay! We hold! We fight!”

It wasn’t until Spitelout and his Nadder fired at a Singetail and hovered in front of the chief that he changed his mind—and even then, he wouldn’t relent at first.

“There are too many of them, Stoick.”

“We can do this, Spitelout!” he insisted. I’d become momentarily distracted, allowing a Singetail to get a little too close for comfort; Shriek and I just barely managed to avoid getting burnt alive.

“No, we can’t. And we won’t. It’s okay, Chief. We will find another island.”

“And we’ll build another storehouse.”

“Together.”

The two finally turned their dragons around, ready to retreat from the losing battle, much to the relief of their sons and myself.

“Oh, thank Thor!” Snotlout breathed. “Now, let’s blow this yaksickle stand!”

“Right behind you!”

The five of us had just turned around to head back to our homes, when Snotlout appeared to remember something, and dove below the line of smoke. I feared he’d changed his mind about abandoning the storehouse, but thankfully, he came back to the group just seconds later with only a yak dangling from Hookfang’s claws.

“What? I had to go back for Yakkity.” I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t prevent a smile from pushing its way through.

Apparently, on this flight, we couldn’t go five seconds without someone forgetting something. This time, Stoick brought Skullcrusher to a complete halt, staring back at the island.

“Wait!”

“What is it, Dad?” Hiccup asked, confused.

Stoick never gave an answer, instead demonstrating what had struck his memory when he and his dragon went back into the fray, and emerged with that stupid metal ‘S’ that had been hanging on the front of the storehouse.

“Can’t rebuild a storehouse without the ‘S’, right?”

“Even though it stands for Spitelout,” I heard Snotlout’s dad mutter.

Still, it was the thought that counts.

Once we reached the Edge again, Snotlout offered to help Hiccup and I fix the damage he’d done, something the two of us very much appreciated. To our surprise, he didn’t attempt to show off or do something we didn’t ask for—he just got the job done, and the majority of it, too. We even had time to replace that annoying ladder with a staircase, which definitely would serve better in the long run.

Even if he absolutely drove me insane sometimes, Snotlout was still one of my oldest friends, and for that alone, I respected him. It was nice to have him around.


	32. Buffalord Soldier (Hiccup)

**_The wiki says that the Scourge of Odin is spread through blood, but I call BS because they said it wiped out whole villages and I find it hard to believe that a blood-borne disease could do that so quickly. So, I’m changing it to just through bodily fluid (WHICH TECHINCALLY INCLUDES BLOOD) to make it make more sense_ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - --- - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -_ **

So far, it had been quite a productive morning.

Reign and Astrid had decided to go on patrol for today, offering me the chance to work on projects around the Edge. In just the span of a few hours, Fishlegs and I had made repairs to all the watch towers, Snotlout helped with slowly replenishing the Monstrous Nightmare gel he’d aided in depleting, and the twins used Barf and Belch’s explosions to gather up more projectiles for the catapults. Everything had gotten finished so quickly, I had time to work on improvements for Toothless’ tail… and, in the process, test out something new I’d been tinkering with.

I set two pieces of metal that needed to be fused together onto the table at the clubhouse, but before Toothless used his plasma to weld them, I reached into my pocket.

“Ah, one second, bud.” The moment I placed the goggles over my eyes, the entire world turned orange, and all the lights around me significantly dimmed. “Okay, Toothless. Spark it up.”

Toothless fired a long, close-range plasma blast, slowly welding the two metal pieces together. Just like I’d hoped, when I stared directly at the light, I wasn’t blinded and left with spots across my vision. Instead, I could actually see the two objects in front of me coming together.

“Interesting material.” I turned to see the outline of Fishlegs, significantly less clear because of the light filtration. “Seems organic in nature.” Toothless let up his fire, and I passed the goggles off to Fishlegs, allowing him to take them for a test run.

“Deathsong amber, hammered thin,” I informed him. “This is strong enough to stare into the eyes of a Flightmare.”

“Fascinating.”

This time, when Toothless shot out a plasma blast, I was forced to cover my eyes, but Fishlegs could stare directly at it, causing him to bounce with excitement. It was nice to be sharing this with someone who got so giddy about every little new improvement. Sure, Reign supported what I came up with, despite the jokes she made that might suggest otherwise, but Fishlegs and I could practically speak the same creative language.

All of my attention got drawn away from the work in front of me when I heard footsteps on the wood floor. Reign and Astrid had returned from patrol, but they didn’t look too good. Astrid had an arm slung around Reign, whose skin had practically turned a literal shade of white, and she had one of her hands wrapped around her elbow. Both their eyes looked drained of life, and neither of them managed to look up for very long. Any excitement or joy was instantly replaced by overwhelming worry, and I rushed over to the pair, reaching out to grab Reign’s free hand.

“Are you guys okay?” My voice warbled as I asked the question. Reign tried to look up at me, but the moment our eyes met, she flickered them over to Astrid, then onto the floor. “What’s wrong? Did you see something on patrol?” Just barely, the two of them nodded. Reign slipped herself out from under Astrid’s grip, and the second she got closer to me, I placed my hands on her shoulder. Strangely, she wouldn’t remove that one hand from the crook of her elbow.

“Hunters? Trapped dragons? Viggo?” Something told me Fishlegs’ questioning wasn’t helping.

“Oh! I love this game.” I flinched at the sound of Tuffnut’s voice. When had everyone else gotten here? “Okay, now it’s my turn. Everyone quiet. Reign, is what you and Astrid found bigger than a yak box?” Both of them hesitated, then Reign pushed away and started to move away from the group.

“We found a fishing boat,” she whispered, her words barely audible. A fishing boat really wasn’t something that would elicit the reaction both of them were having, which made me feel worse.

“I’m supposed to guess before you tell me,” Tuff lamented. “Doesn’t anyone know how to play? But, just for the record, a boat is bigger than a yak box. So, I’ll just score this one a win for the old T-Nut. Scratch one off in the Tuffnut column.”

“It was just drifting out there,” Astrid continued. “We went to get a closer look. But what we found inside, it was…” She trailed off, unable to finish.

“Was what?” Snotlout pushed. Reign’s shoulders moved up and down with the pattern of a deep breath before she finally had the courage to spit it out.

“Bodies. Skin was all pale and green.”

I felt like I was going to be sick. I hadn’t even been there to witness the scene, but the image Reign’s words put in my head were enough to threaten to push up the contents of my stomach. The fact that Reign and Astrid had to stumble upon that, completely unaware of what they were walking into…

“We got out of there as fast as we could.”

“Survivors?” Fishlegs inquired hopelessly.

“One.” Reign visibly shuddered.

“Then we need to go back out there and help them,” I ordered. “Toothless.”

“Hiccup, it’s too late.” Reign shook her head, finally turning completely around to look at me. Fishlegs tapped my arm, his hands trembling with a nervous energy.

“Um, Hiccup, ‘pale green skin’? I hate to be the harbinger of doom, but—“ I shook my arms violently, trying to keep him from letting the words come out. We had a couple hypochondriacs in the group, and I didn’t want to set off a chain of panic.

“I know what you’re thinking, Fishlegs, but—“

“The Scourge of Odin.” Behind me, I heard Snotlout cry out in alarm. That was the exact scenario I was hoping to prevent.

“Let’s not throw that word around too loosely, because—“

“Wait. Back it up. Did he say ‘Scourge of Odin’?” I couldn’t really deny it, unfortunately. Fishlegs had spoken pretty clearly.

“Yes, but there’s no need to panic.” 

“Right. No need to panic. The Scourge of Odin.” With each sentence, Snotlout’s tone grew imbibed with more alarm. “Just the plague that tore through the archipelago centuries ago, wiping out entire Viking villages! Yeah, why would we worry about that?” His eyes suddenly went wide, and he rushed over to his dragon. “Quick, Hookfang! I need a mask for my mouth.”

“Well, that’s a long time coming,” Astrid joked, starting to return to her old self.

“Very funny,” the panicked Viking snapped. “I already feel short of breath.”

The twins, on the opposite side of the same coin, decided this was the moment to attempt and incite total chaos.

“We must burn our clothes!” Ruffnut declared with grandeur.

“No, no, no, no. No need to panic. I’ve got the answer. Wait for it.” From his pocket, Tuffnut removed a piece of bread completely covered it molt. It appeared to be just a few stages short of being eaten away. “Bing! Oh yeah.”

“Moldy bread?” his sister scoffed. “Like that’s gonna cure the Scourge?”

“That it will, sis. Once I had a really bad cold. So, I decided to eat some moldy bread. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. But, boom! Instantly cured.” Ruffnut rolled her eyes at the logic. “Okay, you scoff now, but one day, science will recognize my genius. They called old Uncle Henrik ‘crazy.’”

“He _is_ crazy, Tuffnut. He married his own beard.”

“Mm-hmm. Yes. Okay. Bad example. Let’s go with your clothes-burning plan. We’ll keep them on you, just to be sure. Barf! Belch!”

Nope, nope, nope. I doubted the Zippleback would attack one of his riders, but I didn’t want to risk burning anything else down in the clubhouse.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions and set ourselves on fire, eat moldy bread or hyperventilate,” I quickly intervened. Upon hearing my words, Snotlout stopped breathing into… his own shoe?

“Snotlout, you can’t catch the Scourge of Odin by breathing,” Fishlegs reminded him. Suddenly caught, he stared down at his boot before tossing it over his shoulder.

“I knew that.” Hookfang leaned closer to his rider and blew smoke in his face, demonstrating his disbelief.

“There hasn’t been a single case of the Scourge for centuries,” I added. “Plus, Reign and Astrid got out of there right away.”

It was then that I noticed Reign had remained eerily silent during that whole exchange. Normally, I would’ve expected her to make a jab at the twins or Snotlout, or interject with some sort of calming logic, but she just stayed facing away from all of us, her shoulders a little more slumped than before. I approached her carefully, trying to keep from startling her.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

The moment I placed my hand on her shoulder, she reached up and squeezed it, before gently pushing it away.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Really,” she insisted. Something about her voice almost sounded… weak. Like she’d somehow lost all her energy. “I think I just need to go recover from what we saw.”

“Do you want me with you?” She shook her head just a couple times, the movements appearing sort of disjointed and sloppy.

“You stay here and get your work done. I’ll just be in the hut.”

Something wasn’t right with her. I’d never seen Reign this disconnected before. It was like there was no life in her eyes, and her skin wasn’t getting any of its tint back. She was already extremely pale, a trait that ran in her family, so any discoloration was absolutely cause for alarm. She could barely even stand, and ended up relying on Shriek to fly her back to her hut.

Still, she insisted she was okay.

Trying my best to push the worst-case thoughts away, I put my goggles back on and focused back on testing their limits.

_THUD!_

I jolted awake suddenly when the force of something slamming against me knocked me off the stool I’d been sitting on. Disorientation kept me on the wooden boards, shaking my head and attempting to get my bearings, and when I jumped up, I was greeted with the sight of Shriek running around in circles, occasionally grumbling in distress.

“Shriek?” Upon hearing my voice, she jumped and faced out in the direction of our hut. It took me a second to realize what she was trying to tell me, but once it finally hit me, my heart dropped.

I jumped up onto Toothless, and the two of us flew back home as fast as my dragon could carry me. Not caring about keeping things intact, I threw open my front door and sprinted up the stairs, finding Reign sat upright—but her head was buried in one of her hands, and her cheeks now burned bright as her hair… and so did the scratch on her left arm that she’d been hiding from me.

“Hiccup?” Her voice cracked and came out raspy. “You’re back?”

“Shriek seemed a little worried, so I…” Reign coughed suddenly, a barking sound coming through near the tail end of it.

I felt my brain shut down for a moment, the reality of what we were facing dawning on me. With what little focus I had, I managed to get her to lay back down and threw blankets over her body, getting the shivers to at least lessen. Once I felt good enough with that, Toothless and I rushed to Fishlegs’ hut, waking him up and getting him to come as quickly as possible, but not before stopping at Astrid’s and Snotlout’s. I filled all of them in on what was going on, Astrid and Snotlout offered to fly back to Berk and speak to Gothi. I didn’t want it to be true, but…

With each page Fishlegs turned, I paced back and forth across the room twice. I’d thought to remain calm for a while, but I just couldn’t control the raw fear that so completely consumed me. I’d never felt like this before, but then again, I’d never been faced with a scenario where Reign genuinely could be facing her last days.

No, no. I couldn’t think like that; that would just make all this worse.

“Hiccup, will you stop pacing?” Reign’s attempts at speaking launched her into another coughing fit.

Fishlegs waited for that to die down, then he took his chance to get a little closer to Reign. His eyes glossed over her wound for a moment, then he whipped around suddenly, pulling me away from her side.

“What is it?” I asked warily.

“You saw that scratch, right?”

“She said it’s nothing.” I didn’t really believe that myself, but I was so desperately trying to remain optimistic.

“You know Reign. It’s not nothing. All the signs are there.” I grimaced as our person of interest began to cough again.

This couldn’t be happening…

“All right, let’s assume for a second that you’re right. What’s the cure?” Fishlegs’ sorrowful expression made my head spin for a second.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “The only thing I know is that the Scourge moves swiftly, overtaking its victims in less than three moons.”

“One moon has already passed.”

“I know. Astrid and Snotlout are on their way back from Berk with Gothi’s notes. Hopefully, they’ll tell us something more.”

Right now, I just needed the assurance that, in this moment, Reign was still alive. I couldn’t catch the Scourge by being near her or touching her, so I made my way over and sat down on the edge of our bed, taking one of her hands and holding it tight in both of mine. Her skin felt fiery to the touch, but I just focused on the fact she was breathing, and could still communicate with us. Her eyes drifted over to me, but her smile just felt vacant. This wasn’t a state I ever wanted to see her in—suffering inside and struggling to even keep herself conscious.

The second Snotlout and Astrid landed outside our hut, Fishlegs ran to them and snatched the parchment out of the latter’s hand, scanning over it. Astrid made her way up the stairs, staring at Reign as her hands shook.

“How’s she holding up?” she asked quietly. Not wanting Reign to panic, I just shook my head. “She pushed me out of the way. That one survivor that gave her the scratch… I was standing near them, and she saw them move and got me out of the way, and then…” Astrid didn’t need to finish. I put the pieces together on my own.

“Astrid, it’s not your fault. No matter which one of us it was, Reign would’ve done this.” I shifted my gaze back to her. “But it’s not her fault, either. It’s no one’s fault.”

“Guys, I can hear you.” Reign tried to laugh, but it just came out as a pained wheeze. “Besides, I feel fine. I just wish everyone would stop—“ Her words were interrupted by a set of coughs, causing me to wince in pain. It was like I could feel the ache in her lungs. “—worrying.”

After he finished reading over the notes, Fishlegs brought them to me, allowing me to take my own crack at them. At first, there was nothing phenomenal in her writings, but a surge of hope shot through my chest when I read over one specific section.

“Fishlegs, look! In Gothi’s notes, there’s a cure of the Scourge of Odin. A green solution made from the saliva of a Buffalord dragon.”

Nothing in that sounded unusual to me, but when I glanced up, everyone was looking at me with fearful or sympathetic expressions.

“What? What is it?” No one seemed like they really wanted to tell me.

“Well, it’s just…”

“There aren’t any more Buffalord. They were all hunted into extinction during the Scourge’s last outbreak.” I shook my head once the words left Reign’s mouth, unwilling to believe what she’d just said. There had to be something out there that could save her.

“We don’t know if they’re gone for sure,” I stated, not caring that both Reign and I were in different states of deep denial at this point. “We need to get out there and find one.”

“But we don’t even know where to start looking,” Fishlegs sighed. “There’s no mention of the Buffalord anywhere. It’s like they were wiped from history.”

Reign actually managed to push herself back up onto her feet, much to my dismay.

“Come on, I told you guys, I’m…” Just seconds later, her eyelids involuntarily fluttered shut, and her body listed severely to her left. I managed to catch her right before she hit the wood, but despite the incident, she smiled. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.”

Carefully, I managed to pick her back up and set her down on our bed, tucking her back under the covers. The rest of our group left after that, claiming they were going to find answers, and I just held onto Reign, wrapping the two of us in the heavy silence. By now, we both understood the absolutely morbid nature of all this, but neither of us wanted to be the one to voice anything. I just wanted to stay here… but if there was any chance one of us could find a Buffalord, I had to take it.

“Hiccup?” The way Reign’s voice just barely escaped her throat broke my heart. “ _Please_ stop worrying. I’m going to be fine. I always am.” Her confidence was misplaced in this moment.

“I’m going to make sure of that, Reign. But I need you to stay here and rest, okay? Please, just listen this time?” She managed to nod.

I moved in to kiss her, more as reassurance for me than for her, but she stuck her free hand up and pushed me away.

“Fluids, remember? I wouldn’t forgive myself if you…” I cut her off as I leaned forward and placed a kiss on her forehead.

“I’ll be back with the cure. I swear on my life.”

It took everything in me not to just lay down and hold her, but it was what had to be done. Toothless and I took off toward the clubhouse, finding everyone gathered around a set of papers at the round table.

“How is she?” Snotlout asked the moment I walked in.

“Resting,” I sighed. “What else have we found, Fishlegs?”

“I spent the last few hours combing through my Dragon Eye research and found some old notes,” he informed me as he leafed through the papers. “I didn’t think much of them at first, but…” He handed me one of them, the one of most importance.

“The Buffalord! But nothing on its location. There’s really not much about it here at all.”

“It’s big, has ram-like horns, and lives on the plains. That’s something.” Sadly, that wasn’t the information we needed to save Reign. “I’ll keep looking.”

Curious, Tuffnut reached over and picked up a set of the notes. As he read over them, something in his face shifted, turning to recognition.

“What’s this stuff?” he inquired, showing the images to Fishlegs.

“That’s nothing,” Fishlegs dismissed. “Just some Dragon Eye tracings. No useful information. Just archaic dots and slashes.” The way the twins looked at each other and the drawings suggested anything but.

“What? Wait, you guys see something?” I’d reached the point where I was relying on the twins to solve the problem; not exactly how I saw this going down.

“Yeah. These make a map.” Tuffnut was so casual about the revelation, like he expected all of us to already know that.

“Duh! How do you guys not see that?” The rest of us leaned over the twins’ shoulders as we watched Tuffnut assemble the map. Something about it didn’t look quite right, but the general feel was there. “See? These squiggles are water. That big nose is and island. Those slashes are sea stacks. And that there would be…” Tuffnut pointed to a drawing that perfectly matched the note’s description.

“The Buffalord?”

“How did you do that?” Snotlout asked, sounding vaguely impressed.

“We’re experts at interpreting abstract images. Watch and learn.” Ruffnut held up a set of images that basically just consisted of lines and one circle.

“A boat. A pineapple. Mom.”

I’d pretty much tuned them out by now, focusing on the map. It took me a second, but I recognized the way the pattern was supposed to go.

“Actually, this looks familiar.” I removed the large map from my belt and laid it out on the table, then rearranged the drawings and put them in the corner I recognized.

This was it!

“We found it, Hiccup!” Fishlegs cheered. “We found it!”

“We found a location,” I corrected. “Now, let’s hope to Odin they still exist.”

Everyone went to gather up their things post-haste, save for Astrid, who offered to stay behind with Reign. At first, I wanted to insist that she come with us, since we needed as many bodies as possible to look for this dragon, but knowing Reign, she’d need someone there to make sure she didn’t try to go back and do normal things the moment she realized we were all gone.

Reign was fast asleep when I returned to our hut, but I still filled her in on everything, hoping she could hear me. Before Toothless and I were forced to go, I squeezed her hand and placed another kiss on her forehead. This wouldn’t be the last time I did that—I wasn’t going to let it be. Even if it cost me everything.

The sprint to this new island held all of us by ropes pulled to their tightest, binding all of us together to force us to fly at the same speed. I found myself glancing at my map every two seconds, not wanting to take the risk of mistakenly flying to the wrong island. The whole time, my brain was at least half-consumed by the thoughts of Reign and Astrid, back at the Edge, trying to make sure the former got through this. Reign was one of the strongest people I knew, but this illness took down even the fiercest warriors during its last outbreak. It had rendered her unable to stand by the time I’d left; how much longer did we _really_ have?

I forced that pessimism away when the island we’d been searching for finally came into view. I was the first to land, scanning over the completely flat terrain filled with very little grass and large patches of herbs. If a Buffalord was going to be anywhere, this looked like the most likely place. The rest of the group appeared to agree, already searching over what was visible from where we stood to look for any signs of a Buffalord.

“Now, these dragons were supposedly hunted to extinction, so, if there are any left, they will have developed a wariness towards humans.”

“Which means we have to move quickly,” Fishlegs confirmed.

“And remember, we have less than two moons to find this dragon and bring the cure back to the Edge.” The unspoken second sentence in that was enough motivation to get everyone off the ground immediately.

Toothless and I flew over our section of the island hundreds of thousands of times, and though the only thing that changed was the color of the fading sky, I refused to give up, falsely believing something would change in the half a second our backs were facing the land as we turned around to double back.

My concentration had been so heavily focused on paying attention to every little detail that it wasn’t until Toothless yawned that my concentration dared to break.

“I know, bud.” I pat the top of his head, comforting him a little. “But we have to keep pushing forward.” Just ahead, barely out of our ‘boundary’, I noticed a small river, and an idea popped into my head. “Tell you what, let’s grab some water from that stream and we’ll get back up in the air.”

I detached the jar from Toothless’ saddle and bent down, scooping up some of the cool water for me to drink. I didn’t realize how badly I needed it until I felt the cold slither down my throat and spread in the pit of my stomach, somehow mimicking the terrible thoughts I’d been grappling with. I hadn’t been standing there for very long, when Toothless’ ear plates perked up suddenly, and he bounded over the stream and behind the rocks before us, disappearing over the hill.

“Toothless?” He didn’t come back, forcing me to follow him.

He hadn’t wandered very far, his attention focused on a pile of… something green in front of him. Curious, I tried to get a closer look, but I didn’t want to touch the unidentified objects, and I couldn’t figure out what they might be from the distance I was at. But, I did know someone who’d be willing to get in there _and_ would most likely know what this stuff was.

I cupped my hands around my mouth and sounded the call for everyone to gather up. They came over in record time, eyes wide and optimistic.

“Did you find one?” Snotlout asked, his tone cautiously hopeful.

“No, unfortunately,” I sighed. “But, I think I might have found something that can give us a clue. Fishlegs, can you take a closer look?”

He nodded, then got in closer to the pile, looking over it for a while with careful eyes.

“Hmm. Large size. Unusual coloration.” I grimaced as he dug his hand in, and the pile made a squelching noise. That, sadly, gave me an idea of what he was holding. What made it all the worse was when he brought the thing up close to his nose and sniffed it. “Vegetarian diet. Not the remnants of any dragon I’m familiar with. And I know my dragon droppings. It’s fresh, Hiccup.” I flinched and backed up when he brought it dangerously close to my face. “Last couple of hours. This dragon is still somewhere on this island.”

That was good news, at least.

“And, might I add, a very distinctive bouquet,” Tuffnut mused, wafting the scent towards him. “Sort of herbal. It’s quite nice.”

“Ew,” Snotlout gagged. Fishlegs’ sniffing caused him to jump away from his friend a little. “Double ew.”

We were officially wasting time. We had a dragon to track, and the longer we stood here, the more of a chance that dragon had to get away. Hoping to give us the best chance possible, I detached one of Toothless’ saddle bags.

“Well, if it’s here, I think I might know how we can find it.” I held up the bag for everyone else to see. “This is dragon-tracking equipment. Now, it’s not field-tested, but it’s worth a shot.”

“In the dark?”

Electing to ignore Snotlout, I reached into the bag and threw some of the glowing liquid inside down on the dirt. It took a second, but the blue sheen intensified, revealing the tracks of a large dragon.

“Flightmare algae, of course!” Fishlegs marveled.

“Now, hopefully, a dragon this large doesn’t move too fast.”

The dragon tracks marched on for a while, over hills and down into valleys, but at a certain point, I threw down the algae, and nothing showed up. Momentarily, I felt my heart drop in my chest, but I implored myself to use logic for just one second. We knew this dragon had wings, which meant, if the tracks stopped, he most likely used them.

“Now what?” Snotlout groaned. I could hear the exhaustion he was attempting to fight back.

“It must’ve taken to the air here,” I shared. From the second compartment in the bag, I removed a small piece of glass between metal I’d put together, which would be helpful in spotting the smaller things.

“It’s like a spyglass!”

“But for looking at things close-up.” Took me a second, and little bit of scooting forward, but I found another clue. The possibility that this dragon was still on the island grew greater by the second. “This way.”

“How do you know that?” I picked up the piece of brown and orange, hard material and held it up to everyone else.

“Dragon scale. Let’s move!”

It wasn’t long after that the sun came up, sending its rays over what I hoped was the last hill we had to conquer. Our group only got about halfway up, but the intensity of the rising sunlight temporarily blinded all of us, halting our progress. Thankfully, I had something for that.

With the limited visibility, I managed to reach into the bag and pulled out the pair of goggles I’d been testing a couple days ago. And that’s when I spotted it; the very thing that would save Reign’s life.

“Nothing!” Snotlout whined, shielding his eyes. “How can there still be nothing?”

“No, not nothing.” I passed the goggles off to him. “Look closer.”

Just a second later, I heard Snotlout gasp.

“A Buffalord! Alive!” He then made the mistake of taking the goggles off while still staring at the sun. “Ow.”

I led the way through the stinging light, and once we were right up behind the dragon, I removed the goggles and set them back in my bag, this time removing a small cup. Taking care to be as quiet as possible, I snuck around the side of the dragon.

“You guys distract it,” I whispered, “and I’ll get its saliva.”

“Be careful, Hiccup,” Fishlegs warned. “We know nothing about this dragon.”

“Agreed, but we need to make it quick.” I glanced in the direction of the sun. All I could do right now was hope our window hadn’t closed. “But we’re running out of time.”

I pressed myself as close to the side of the dragon as possible, allowing the others to sneak by and stand just in the Buffalord’s peripheral vision. They all stood their ground, though they trembled in the dragon’s presence, but the moment it looked toward them and let out what honestly sounded like a yawn, every single one of them cried out and ran away. That wasn’t exactly the distraction I’d been hoping for.

Thankfully, the Buffalord remained in its place, returning to just eating the grass in front of it. Sticky steams of saliva spilled from its mouth, covering its entire lower jaw. That definitely made this a lot easier. I managed to just slide in under its field of vision, and once enough of the clear liquid had dripped into the vessel, I jumped up and ran away from the dragon’s side.

“Finally. We got it!” Everyone cheered as I climbed onto Toothless’ back. “Now, let’s go.” Right before we took off, my eyes glanced down at the cup, and I paused, confused by the empty thing now in my hands. “What the… it dried up.”

“What do we do now?” Unfortunately, we didn’t have many other choices. I didn’t like the solution I came up with, but at this rate, it was the safest option for every party.

“We rope him and take him back to Dragon’s Edge. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

Interestingly enough, the Buffalord put up absolutely no fight when I tied ropes around his body, instead just throwing me a sideways glance before returning to eating. Toothless even came up to him, facing him head on, but the two of them just purred at each other, no indication of hostility anywhere in sight.

“It’s remarkably docile for a dragon its size,” Fishlegs observed. “Almost yak-like.”

“No wonder it was so easily hunted. You gotta toughen up there, Buff.” The dragon paid absolutely no mind to Snotlout.

“Aww. He’s kind of cute.”

“Hiccup, can we keep him?” Tuffnut begged as I attached the ropes to Toothless’ tail. “I promise I’ll walk him and feed him and stuff. We already know his poop doesn’t smell. And he doesn’t even act like it. Not like Ruffnut, who acts like her poop doesn’t smell.”

“We need to get him back to Reign,” I snapped.

Toothless tried to get up in the air, but the Buffalord just stayed on the grass, continuing to eat and pay no mind to the rest of us. He was a stubborn and lazy dragon, that much was for sure.

“Come on, big guy,” I urged. “Come on!”

The shouting finally snapped him out of it, and he got his feet off the ground, flying right behind Toothless and I. Finally, we were going to be able to get the cure back to Reign. She just had to hold on a little longer.

At least, that’s what I thought up until I heard Snotlout cry out.

“Guys? I think something’s up with the Buff.”

Toothless turned around just in time for me to see the Buffalord’s body expand to nearly three times the size it had started as. The ropes completely snapped, unable to hold down what they’d been tied around, and out of nowhere, the dragon started to blow flames from its mouth, forcing all of our dragons back. This was just intimidation… right?

“We need to stay with it. We have to get it back to the Edge.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have told him to toughed up,” Snotlout whined. “Me and my big mouth.”

The Buffalord shot fire at all of us again, and the moment we were all too far back, it floated effortlessly back down onto the island, shrinking back down to its normal size and just resuming eating like absolutely nothing happened. Confused and panicked, the rest of us didn’t feel it safe enough to land yet, so we just hovered and stared at the Buffalord.

“Okay. What was that?”

“He appears to be fine as long as he’s on his island,” Fishlegs concluded.

“Great. So now what?”

We only had one option left.

“If we can’t take the Buffalord to Reign—“

“Bring Reign to the Buffalord. I’m on it!”

Every second that ticked by, I felt hopelessness growing stronger and stronger in my blood. I’d never been forced to face a situation where the future could possibly end up with me standing alone against everything. Even after Reign and I had that massive fight, I knew she would still be there once the dust settled. But now, even when we’d found the cure, the clock was ticking far too close to the end. I’d pictured dozens of futures before, each completely different, with the exception of one thing: Reign. There wasn’t a single world I could imagine that didn’t involve her in some way. Refusal to give up still ran strong, but I had to at least consider the possibility that there was one scenario, off in a dark corner…

I could just barely make out Reign’s figure on Stormfly as Astrid, Snotlout, and her landed on the island. Astrid had her gripped firm in her arms, her body limp and falling around in whatever direction she was pulled. Her pallid skin had started to take on the green tint, and despite being wrapped in a blanket, she shivered violently. My heart ached when Astrid passed her off to me, and she couldn’t even open her eyes.

“Any changes?” The way Astrid looked away wasn’t promising.

“She’s… she’s got the rattle, Hiccup.” I froze, momentarily, then leaned in a little closer to Reign, listening for her breaths. Just as Astrid had said, when she inhaled, it was more of a wheeze, and when she exhaled… it sounded like there was something stuck in her lungs, shaking and jarring around with great force.

No, no, no. We barely had any time left.

Upon hearing voices, Reign attempted to lift her head a little, causing her to weakly groan in pain.

“Just rest.” I moved some hair from her eyes as I set her down against a rock, keeping my hold on her. “We’re gonna beat this. I promise you, Reign. You just have to keep fighting, and hold on.” She just remained still, breaths coming faster each time. I moved my hands to one of hers, resting my forehead against her own. I just needed the reminder she was still getting through. “You need to stay with us,” I begged, trying not to get choked up. “I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”

Reign tried to say something, and that was enough for me. I pushed myself up from the ground and marched over to the Buffalord, cup in hand.

“All right, we need to move quickly.”

I shoved the cup underneath the Buffalord’s mouth, throwing any and all caution to the wind, and caught the drips of saliva. Once I made sure there was actually something in there, I raced back to Reign’s side and had Astrid help me tilt her head back. Reign sputtered and gagged, grimacing at the taste of the stuff, but… not much else happened. Her breath still rattled, and she couldn’t open her eyes.

“Nothing’s happening.”

“Maybe it takes some time for the antidote to work.” Fishlegs didn’t really sound like he believed that himself. Reign shot forward suddenly, coughing with everything left in her before she devolved into a fit of shuddering. Astrid pulled the blanket tighter around her, eyeing her friend with worry.

“No, something’s wrong,” Astrid muttered. I heard the rustling of Fishlegs removing his notes from his bag, checking over them again.

“It says the green solution will cure the Scourge. ‘Green solution.’ ‘Cure.’ That’s all it says.”

Wait… what?

“But, the Buffalord’s saliva is clear. What does it mean, ‘green solution’?”

Fishlegs didn’t have any answers. It wasn’t until Snotlout turned his attention to the twins, who were sitting in the middle of a patch of herbs and eating them, that the answer revealed itself.

“How can you two eat at a time like this?” Snotlout demanded.

“Hey, people deal with stress differently, okay?” Ruff insisted.

“And we’re eating what the Buffalord eats, because, hey, who doesn’t want sweet-smelling droppings?”

“It’s a victimless crime.”

I took a glance at the twins, not really paying them any mind, until something about the color around their mouths caught my attention, causing me to snap my gaze right back at them.

“Wait, Hiccup…” Fishlegs gasped, pointing to the same thing I’d noticed.

“The herbs! It must be what the Buffalord eats, mixed with its saliva that creates the antidote.”

“Which would stand to reason why it won’t leave this place. I can’t be away from the herbs it eats.” Getting the mixture for the cure shouldn’t be that difficult, but something told me we had just minutes left.

“So, we just need it to eat the herbs to create the green solution.” Now hopeful that we could save her, I squeezed Reign’s hand again. “Hang in there, Reign. Just a little longer. Please. For me.”

Snotlout lured the Buffalord over to the patch of herbs closest to us, shouting about how it had tried to kill us, and that should’ve worked up its appetite. Not exactly the persuasion I would have used, but nonetheless, it worked. The Buffalord lumbered its way over to the patch of herbs, and in a matter of seconds, its saliva began to turn green.

I had just leaned in to catch some of the liquid, when something whizzed over my head. I just barely managed to roll out of the way in time as a net slung over the Buffalord, preventing me from getting the one thing I needed. At first, I didn’t understand where the trap had come from, until I looked to my left, and spotted the line of Hunters coming up over the hill, led by none other than Viggo and Ryker themselves.

The first time they show themselves in months, and it _had_ to be now.

“Viggo!” I growled, sickened by the smirk on his face.

“Hello, Hiccup,” he greeted smoothly as his Hunters completely surrounded all of us. “Thank you so very much for this gift. I do apologize that you won’t be able to use it to save your little friend.” Viggo laughed as he looked toward Reign, and it took everything in me not to lunge at him right then and there.

“But how?” Fishlegs quivered. “There’s no trace of this island anywhere. How did he find it?”

“Who cares?” Snotlout dismissed. “We’ve been dying for a little action.” He and Hookfang took to the air, prompting the rest of us to do the same. Viggo wasn’t about to be the reason I lost Reign.

“Let’s make this count, bud.”

The Hunters, however, were extremely prepared. The moment the six of us were up in the air, four Hunters wheeled in a large cart, ready to carry away the Buffalord. We managed to stall for a few moments, but the Hunters remained relentless, shooting off dozens of arrows for everyone one blast one of us fired off.

“Hiccup, I can’t get a clean shot.”

The twins getting shot down drew the line for me.

“Pull up, Riders,” I ordered. “We can’t risk hurting the Buffalord. We need it.” No way was I about to give in to this. “Viggo, release that dragon. You have no idea what you’re doing.”

“Oh, I beg to differ, my dear Hiccup,” Viggo called up to us. “I’m keenly aware of my actions. This dragon is exceedingly unique. It will elicit a considerable bounty on the open market. You should have left well enough alone, Hiccup. My fishing boat was no place for you or any of your Riders.”

My blood boiled once I registered his words. Earlier, I had told Reign this was no one’s fault, but that was a lie—it was Viggo’s. Completely and fully Viggo’s.

“ _Your_ fishing boat?” Viggo turned to his men, commanding them to load up the Buffalord. The Hunters had already started to wheel it away when Viggo explained with whatever insane logic made sense to him.

“It’s simple, really. Supply and demand. I knew where to get the supply, if I could only generate the demand.”

Fishlegs took one glance between Reign, who was practically at death’s door now, and Viggo, then his hands balled up, looking angrier than I’d ever seen him before. Then again, I was pretty sure he considered Reign one of his best friends.

“You’re a monster!”

“Fishlegs, I’m shocked.” Viggo feigned all of his surprise. “I’d have thought you were above name-calling. ‘Monster?’ No. ‘Savvy businessman?’ Indeed.”

“And what if the dragon was extinct?” I snarled.

“I tend to not dwell on ‘what ifs’, my boy. Leaves you barren.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s take this psycho out already!” As much as I would have loved that, there were far greater risks in killing Viggo than letting him go alive.

“I would think twice about your actions, Hiccup.” Ryker held his sword right against the Buffalord’s head as his brother spoke.

“And your profits?”

“Like I said, business is business. This? Oh, it’s a loss I’m willing to incur. Question is, are you?” He gestured to Reign, clearly deciphering how close she was to the end. I wanted to try and keep dragons safe, but here… it just wasn’t possible.

“Okay, Viggo. Okay, you win. Take him. Take the dragon. But leave us with what we came here for, the Scourge antidote. Buffalord saliva. I’m not leaving here without it. That’s a loss I’m never willing to take.” I watched as Reign moved, almost appearing like she was trying to speak, before her head collapsed back down against the rock. “Do we have a deal? Or are we both leaving here empty-handed? Your call.”

Viggo narrowed his gaze, considering the offer for an agonizingly long amount of time—and he knew that—but finally, he stuck his hand up, getting Ryker and the Hunters to back away from the dragon. Unwilling to waste even another second, I removed the cup from my belt and crouched down beside the Buffalord’s mouth, catching as much green saliva as possible.

“I’ve truly missed our time together, Hiccup. My brother leaves something to be desired in the repartee department.” I refused to acknowledge anything he said. “My boy, don’t look so morose. It takes all the fun out of it. All’s well that ends well. Hmm? Besides, I get no joy out of you losing Reign. She has proved to be a worthy opponent in this game we play. Having her to face as well makes all of this more interesting.”

Seething, I sharply turned around and forced my way back to Reign, pouring the liquid down her throat. She shuddered in disgust and struggled to swallow, but with Astrid’s help, the cure started to go down a little smoother.

“I know. I know. Just drink.”

Almost instantly after the cure was depleted, Reign actually managed to sit up a little more. The rattling in her breathing began to fade away, and ever slowly, the color began to return to her skin.

“Hiccup, I think… I think…” I felt like I was about to go limp with overwhelming relief.

“It’s working.”

Her legs were still weak, so I helped her up and held her close against me. Despite her unsteady state, Reign was starting to come back, evidenced by the way she glared at Viggo when he spoke up again.

“I’m afraid our time must end, Hiccup. We will continue our contest in due time.”

The rest of the group started toward their dragons, ready to take down the Hunters and get the Buffalord back to its home island, but I wasn’t about to risk breaking my deal with Viggo. Besides, if patterns persisted, we didn’t have to worry about the Hunters actually getting away with the Buffalord.

“Stand down,” I warned. “We agreed to let him leave the island with that dragon. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Everyone protested and stared at me with confusion, but I just moved to start packing everything up to get us out of there, keeping at least one arm secured around Reign at all times. I genuinely couldn’t wrap my head around the fact I’d nearly lost her just a few minutes ago, and now, she was already on her feet and talking, insisting that she was fine.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to buy that again.

Thankfully, just as we all climbed up onto our dragons, the Buffalord had broken free from the Hunters, and was now safely back on its island, munching on herbs like absolutely nothing had happened. Hopefully, seeing what happened when the Buffalord was taken from its home would discourage the Hunters from trying to come back for it again.

“Well, that just leaves one thing to do.”

All seven of us headed to the Edge, gathering up supplies and allowing Reign the chance to get Shriek, then she and Astrid led us out toward the fishing boat, ready to lay all of this to rest. We each used our dragons to light our pitch-dipped arrowheads, then Reign led the prayer, her voice filled with authoritative strength and comfort.

“There do I see my father, my mother, and my brothers and my sisters. They bid me take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla… where the brave shall live forever.”

Our arrows sailed from our bows, striking the deck of the ship and slowly consuming it in flames. The twins, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Astrid remained in a respectful silence for a moment, before turning their dragons around and heading back toward the Edge. I wanted to do the same, but I couldn’t stop focusing on something Viggo had said earlier, just now registering with me now that I knew Reign was safe.

“What are you thinking about?” Reign leaned down a little, trying to get a better look at my face.

“This might be just the beginning,” I sighed.

“Of what?”

“Something Viggo said about knowing where the ‘supply’ was.” Reign’s eyes widened. “You don’t think he could have unlocked the Dragon Eye, do you?

“How? He doesn’t have a Snow Wraith key.”

“But he found the Buffalord on his own. And we need to find out how.”

Despite the dire and morbid circumstances of our conversation, Reign smiled, and I felt my heart flutter. I still had to keep reminding myself she as safe and healthy once again.

“Hiccup, I just wanted to say thanks. I really owe you.” I shrugged, steering Toothless a little closer so I could take her hand.

“It’s no big deal. You’d have done the same for me.”

“In a heartbeat.” She squeezed my hand a little tighter. “And, I feel like this goes without saying, but… I can’t imagine a world without you in it, either.”

I leaned over, placing a lingering kiss on her lips—since now, that was safe again—then the two of us headed back toward the Edge, meeting up with the others at the stables. I refused to leave her side the rest of the night, providing the concrete reminder she would live.

That night, I held her a little closer than normal.


	33. A Grim Retreat

The afternoon sun shone heavy over our heads, providing very little warmth against the chill of the Nordic summers we so often faced. The only reason I’d managed to work up a sweat was the constant lifting and moving of Gronckle Iron, which, despite its lightweight nature, proved to be a bit of a challenge. Still, Shriek and I remained optimistic and diligent in our work, thankful for Hiccup’s help in accomplishing the task.

A few nights ago, Hiccup decided that we needed Gronckle Iron reinforcements for the base, as yet another means of defense against Viggo and the Hunters. I wasn’t exactly sure how necessary it was, but at this point, I was beyond the point of wanting to argue with Hiccup about any of our provisions. His obsession with besting Viggo had reached an all-time high since the episode with the Buffalord. I’d actually managed to get him to sleep and eat normally for a while, but now, all of that had been reverted, leaving us at a point where all of us were working on building new defenses and provisions until the last possible sliver of light disappeared.

We could only fight off the exhaustion for so long…

…which was evidenced by the way productivity fizzled out as the sun began to set. My arms were screaming at and begging me to stop, so I landed near Fishlegs, which prompted Astrid to come back and Hiccup to follow. One of my eyebrows flew up the moment I noticed Meatlug was just continually spewing little bits of lava, unable to make herself stop due to the sheer tiredness overtaking her. 

“Uh, Hiccup? I think Meatlug might be ready for a break. She’s starting to lose her gag reflex.” She just barely managed to cut herself off before the mold overflowed.

“Guess the perfect little machine isn’t so perfect after all,” Snotlout taunted. However, he was in absolutely no position to speak.

“Have you seen your dragon? The giant oven doesn’t look too perky, either.”

“Huh?”

Hookfang’s head swayed and swung, before he couldn’t hold it up anymore. It slammed down against the grass, causing him to involuntarily shoot out a stream off fire, dangerously close to Barf and Belch. That set them off, causing them to fire at back. It ended up missing, instead startling Stormfly, who strung the twins up with spine shots. Out of nowhere, Toothless and Shriek started growling at each other, crouching threateningly low to the ground.

“Really? You, too, bud?” Hiccup sighed, clearly not seeing the bigger picture. “All right, that’s it! Dragons, to your corners!”

All six dragons shrunk down, the result of being yelled at, but they obeyed, sulking off to separate corners.

“Hey, Hiccup. Did you know that upside-down you actually have a metal arm instead of a metal leg?” Groaning, I buried my face in my hands. There was absolutely no logic behind that.

“What is going on around here?” The fact Hiccup hadn’t figured anything out really cemented just how oblivious he was.

“Hiccup, we’ve been working really hard on these reinforcement walls,” I pointed out. “Everyone is just tired. Look at the dragons.”

“You know, Hookfang and I could really use a vacay.”

“Vacation?” The twins’ faces were starting to turn an alarming shade of red. “Count us in. We’ll grab our straw helmets and a chilling tale of Viking murder to read on some enchanted beach, laughing as the waves crash against us.”

The more the twins talked about the idea of a vacation, the more it started to grow on me.

“Guys, I get that you’re all tired, but remember why we’re doing this.”

And, of course, Hiccup immediately swooped in and dashed any of those hopes.

“Oh, because you told us to,” Snotlout grumbled, annoyed that his idea had been so quickly shot down.

“No, because Viggo is out there. And when he finally realizes he can’t use the Dragon Eye without the key, he’s gonna come looking for it. We can’t leave the Edge unguarded again.”

He probably expected the argument to end there, but those of us who had remained otherwise silent weren’t ready to give up. Hiccup had gone back to our hut to focus on the ever-expanding map we’d been working on, and Astrid, Fishlegs, and I jumped on our chance to come up with the perfect argument. Thankfully, Fishlegs’ and my knowledge of the islands outside the archipelago offered up the perfect compromise. Once the three of us put everything together, we flew toward my hut, finding Hiccup crouched on the ground and sketching in a new island. He probably thought something was up the moment this specific trio entered the room, and I certainly didn’t help when I reached over and laced my fingers through his.

“Working on your map, huh?” Astrid inquired.

“Need any help?” Fishlegs offered. Hiccup never even glanced up as he answered.

“No, thanks, I’m just kind of—“

“You sure?” I interjected. “’Cause, you know, Fishlegs is really great with maps.”

“Really great.”

Hiccup finally broke his focus, staring at Astrid and Fishlegs with one brow raised suspiciously at them, and when he flickered that gaze to me, he realized we weren’t there to actually help him out.

“Okay, fine, out with it, you three. You didn’t come up here because you love cartography.”

“Well, first of all, I live here, in case you’ve forgotten.” He set down his charcoal and leaned back on his legs, mimicking my posture.

“Second of all, we object.” Astrid and Fishlegs finally crouched down with the two of us.

“We think everyone could use a break. The dragons are really cranky from being overworked.”

“I thought we just went over this,” Hiccup groaned.

“Just hear us out.” If nothing else, hopefully he’d listen to me. “As you know, we’ve been making Gronckle Iron. A lot of it.”

“In doing so, we’ve exhausted the supply of sandstone on the Edge,” Fishlegs continued. “As you know, no sandstone, no Gronckle Iron.”

“There’s a nearby island that has a huge supply of it.” I leaned over Hiccup’s shoulder, resting my chin against it. “It’s also deserted, quiet, and would be a great place to relax, and take a little break from real work.”

Finally, Hiccup caved.

“I don’t really have a choice on this one, do I?” I shook my head, smiling childishly at him. “Where is this island, exactly?”

Astrid placed her finger over the point on the map, far removed from the rest of the islands. Getting him to agree to go that far away from the Edge was a pretty big accomplishment. He mumbled about having to send a Terror Mail to his dad, but then instructed Fishlegs and Astrid to fill the others in and tell them we were wings up early in the morning. But, even after the mail was sent and the deed could not be undone, he really didn’t seem that eager. Sighing, I watched him move around our main floor, doing nothing in particular but attempting to look busy.

“Babe?” He didn’t face me, but halted in his steps. “Look, I know you’re worried about Viggo’s next attack, but this will be good for you. You haven’t been sleeping well, your eating schedule’s all over the place, and you just have nightmares about Viggo when you actually do manage to settle down.”

Sighing, I pushed myself up and made my way over to him, gently pulling on his head to get him to look at me.

“I’m just worried about your health. Coming from experience, this sort of lifestyle just makes everything worse. Besides, this obsessing over someone? Wanting to see them suffer and lose? It’s not…” I slowly slid my hands down to his, closing my eyes. “It’s not you. I’d kind of prefer it if you were around for a long time, but living like this? It’s doing nothing but harm.” Though he didn’t speak, when he rested his head against my shoulder, I felt a bit more reassured. “Besides, it’ll be nice to maybe sneak away and spend some time with just you and I, instead of you, me, and your thoughts of Viggo.”

Finally, he laughed.

“Now, let’s get packed up and head to bed early. I’m already feeling tired.”

“Yeah, sure, sounds good,” he mumbled.

The two of us started to help the other pack up, switching back and forth between throwing our own things into our bag and plucking out something for the other that they’d forgotten. We’d been going for a while, when I noticed Hiccup didn’t pack any extra tunics, so I made my way over and started to open that drawer. I couldn’t get it open very far, before he suddenly dashed over and slammed it shut, nearly damaging my fingers in the process.

“What was that for?” I raised an eyebrow at him, suspicious.

“I just… uh… I was just about to pack up a couple extra shirts,” he stuttered.

“Then why did you slam the drawer shut? Wouldn’t you want to open it more?” Whatever he was hiding in there, my interest was too far piqued to go back. “Come on, Hiccup, what are you hiding?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” he teased, before subtly reaching into the drawer and retrieving a couple of his shirts.

“Oh, so it’s something for me?” He refused to give any sort of indication, but I saw the smile on his face, thankfully meaning we’d moved past any aggravation. “Why can’t I have it now? Is it time sensitive?” I reached my arm over his shoulder, pretending to try and open the door, and he quickly snatched my hand and pushed it back. “Come _on_ , Haddock. You can’t just say something like that and then leave me hanging.”

“You’ll just have to wait, Reign.”

Shaking my head, I jumped a little, pretending to lunge past him, and that’s when he ducked under and grabbed me by my waist, causing me to cry out and laugh. I kicked my legs out, pretending to struggle as he carried me all the way over to my side of the bed and unceremoniously plopped me down, sitting straight up. Still laughing, he leaned down and brought our lips together, gently moving his hands down to my waist and sliding a little closer before he pushed away and crossed back to his side of the room.

“You’ll find out eventually. But you’ve just got to be patient for now.”

I rolled my eyes and reached into one of my drawers, chucking one of my skirts at his head.

“Tease,” I scoffed.

I kept a careful eye on Hiccup as purple and red hues spread out through the sky, my hands tightening the straps on Shriek’s saddle. Almost everyone was here, save for Snotlout, who was probably just packing now, and pretty much ready to go. Thankfully, Stoick and Gobber had arrived a couple hours ago, giving Hiccup enough time to walk them through the entirety of the Edge and feel a little better about leaving this place in their hands.

“All right. Viggo would most likely wait for low tide and try to penetrate the lower wall, then come up through the arena.” I sighed, shaking my head as it rested in my hand. He must’ve thought all this through last night.

“Which is why you’ve secured it from the outside,” his dad reminded him. “Hiccup, Gobber and I have defended Berk from much worse than a bunch of namby-pamby Dragon Hunters.”

“I know, Dad, of course.” I made my way over toward the pair and leaned one arm against Hiccup’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Chief. I’m going to make him focus on literally anything that isn’t Viggo, even if it kills me.” I briefly shot the man on my left a warning glance, then pushed away and went back to finishing up the adjustments for Shriek. It wasn’t until the twins landed, adorned with tall, straw hats on their heads and necklaces of flowers draped over their necks that I stopped what I was doing.

“Ugh!” Gobber grimaced. “Someone die? You two look like you’re going to a Viking funeral.”

“This our vacation attire,” Tuffnut explained—though that did nothing to make their look any less weird.

“Uh, this is not a vacation,” Hiccup corrected.

“Call it what you will. But we plan to kick off our shoes and let the worries of the day melt away.”

Astrid and Stormfly emerged from the stables, and I walked toward them, growing more concerned about this trip. She must’ve read the look on my face, because she immediately launched into interrogation mode.

“What’s up?” she asked, her weight shifting to one hip.

“He keeps insisting this isn’t a vacation,” I groaned. “And he clearly thought through any scenario with Viggo last night, because this morning, he started running through some with his dad.” I glanced back at Hiccup a moment, wondering just how he’d become this person. “I’m just worried we’re going to get there, and he’s going to try to work the whole time, whether we’re helping him or not.”

Astrid slung an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into a little hug.

“I give it five minutes before he gives in and spends time with all of us,” she shrugged. “He won’t admit it, but we both know he needs this, and he’ll realize that once we get there. Besides, if any one of us can distract him and get him to relax, it’s you.” I rolled my eyes as a smile spread onto my face.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, _okay_. You’re right. I’m worrying about something that hasn’t even happened yet.”

I really did appreciate having Astrid around. It was nice having another mind to turn to who was outside of the situations I found myself in with Hiccup, and another girl that I felt comfortable talking some things through with.

Feeling better about everything, I made my way back to my dragon, ready to go when Snotlout landed.

“Did someone die?” He gasped excitedly. “Was it Fishlegs?”

“No, it’s not Fishlegs,” the blonde man groaned after he and Meatlug landed. “I’m right here and ready to go.”

“Go where? No one ever tells me anything.” I shot a brief, unamused glance at Astrid, who just shrugged her shoulders playfully. Something told me this had been on purpose. “Hey, Chief. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to look after your base until you all return,” Stoick explained.

“Return from where?”

“You remember that vacation we were talking about?”

“Yes!”

“Well, it’s not that. We’re not going to a deserted island paradise to have any fun whatsoever.” I wouldn’t have called the place a paradise, but whatever helped Tuffnut relax was what worked for him. “Instead, we’re going to work. Slave away in the sandstone mines.”

“What?” I couldn’t tell if Snotlout was confused or excited. Either way, Hiccup climbed up onto Toothless, finally indicating everyone was ready to leave.

“All right, saddle up. We need to get there before dark.”

The flight to the far away island was filled with laughter and excitement from pretty much everyone except Hiccup. I’m glance at him now and then, concerned, before someone else would catch my attention and I’d be focused on that conversation. I just hoped, in the back of my mind, that this effort wouldn’t be for nothing.

The island itself practically screamed for us to relax: large clearings were perfect for setting up to sleep and camp out for a while, the trees in the forest allowed for just the right amount of light to stream in, and, best of all, a shimmering lagoon with a cascading diamond waterfall. It was honestly and completely perfect. And, thankfully, most of our group felt the same.

“This place is insane!” Snotlout marveled. “Look at that lagoon! Last one in is a rotten 2000-year-old egg!”

That was more like it.

I stripped off the armor on my shoulders to keep it from rusting, and then my boots, then sprinted for the glassy surface and dove in, feeling refreshed the moment I emerged from below. Astrid, the twins, Fishlegs, and all our dragons joined the two of us. Hiccup tried to say something to all of us, but in all honestly, I wasn’t paying attention. I just wanted to relax a while.

Finally, he jumped in with the rest of us, joining in with the splashing and swimming around. The way he smiled as he messed around like the rest of us warmed my heart, even after the rest of us grew tired. I waded over toward the stone and pushed myself up, allowing the water to just rippled around my ankles. I’d been enjoying the quiet for a while, when Fishlegs made his way over to me and joined me sitting there.

“Hey, Fishlegs,” I smiled. “How are you holding up?”

“This is definitely what we needed,” he laughed. “What’s that look for?” I drifted my eyes back to Hiccup, letting out an involuntary, content sigh.

“I haven’t seen him this calm in… well, it feels like forever.” Despite the sad nature of what I said, I chuckled. “I wish he’d stay like this. I just want him to be happy, you know?” Fishlegs nudged me a little.

“You make him happy. I mean, we all see it. Even now, when he’s with you, he’s the old Hiccup.”

My eyes wandered down to my feet, watching them flutter underneath the calm surface as I fought to get what was floating around in my mind out. It wasn’t something I’d even talked to Astrid about, but Fishlegs and her were my best friends (aside from Hiccup, who was on a different tier than them), so I felt just as comfortable telling him.

“I’m ready to marry him,” I admitted, folding my hands against my lap. Fishlegs let out a little gasp of surprise, but I could tell he was trying to keep his reaction relatively contained.

“I thought you said you two agreed you should wait until we’ve gotten rid of the Dragon Hunters.” I shook my head, a smile crossing my face in spite of myself.

“Yeah, we did, but… I don’t know. Lately, we’ve been thrown into a lot of near-death situations, and I keep thinking… I don’t want something to happen to one of us, and I regret never just going for it. I never thought I’d say this, because it just sounds so domestic and I never really thought that was my thing, but I want to be his wife.”

Both of us fell silent for a moment when our topic pulled himself out of the water and crossed over to his dragon, and the moment we knew he was out of earshot, Fishlegs leaned against his hands.

“I know I’ve said this before, but I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t asked you yet, even to just shoot his shot. It’s pretty obvious to the rest of us he wants to. You don’t look at someone the way he looks at you without thinking ‘I’m going to marry you’.”

What came out of my mouth next hadn’t been contemplated even one bit.

“Maybe I should just ask him,” I shrugged. “I get that ‘it’s not tradition’ crap, but we’ve never really ever been about that sort of mindset.” Determined, I sat up a little straighter. “I might do it tonight.”

Before Fishlegs got the chance to respond, Hiccup stepped up and started to address the group.

“Okay, guys. Got that out of our system. Now it’s time for the other kind of fun: working.” I rolled my eyes into the back of my head.

“Dude, lighten up.” Snotlout’s eyelids drooped like he was about to fall asleep on the back of Hookfang. “R-E-L-A-X. Relax.”

“Take a load off, H,” Tuffnut encouraged. “Those rocks aren’t going anywhere. Unless you move them.”

Realizing their efforts were wasted, I stood up and made my way over to him—an action that caused him to shake his head.

“Oh, not you, too, Reign,” he groaned. “You’re killing me.” I could’ve unloaded on him right then and there, but that wouldn’t get us anywhere. Instead, I just chose to remain calm and rational.

“Hiccup, we’re all behind you 100 percent.” The two of us were momentarily distracted when Snotlout pushed Fishlegs into the lagoon. I hadn’t even noticed the former had gotten out of the water at all…

“Oh, that’s nice,” Hiccup deadpanned.

“But you can’t expect them to be you. They’re your soldiers. And good soldiers will work until their hands are raw and until their backs are almost breaking. But there does come a point when they need time to regroup, to forget about being soldiers and just be people.”

I watched an embarrassed blush creep up his face, his hand involuntarily rubbing against the back of his neck for quite a while, as though preparing himself for the long, exasperated sigh that eventually escaped him.

“You’re right,” he admitted. “I’ve been pushing really hard. They deserve this.”

Smiling, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his waist, feeling a sense of comfort in the fact he’d started to give into it all.

The twins offered to cook dinner for everyone once night started to fall, and although I didn’t really have faith in their culinary skills, I also figured it couldn’t hurt for Hiccup and I to take one night off from kitchen duty. We regretted that, however, when they returned to our campsite, trailing an extremely foul odor.

“Dinner is served.”

“What is that smell?” Fishlegs gagged.

“What is this?” I pointed in the general direction of the twins, unable to completely face them without being overwhelmed by the smell.

“Oh, glad you asked, milady.” I scooted back closer to Toothless and Shriek as Tuffnut leaned forward. “That would be salt-encrusted sea bass with a salted seaweed gravy. Mixed in with salt and all topped off with a pinch of salt.”

There was absolutely _no_ way I would eat that.

“Whoa, that is salty.” Hiccup actually picked up the dish, but the moment he got it in close to his face, he gagged and threw it in the dragons’ direction. We figured they’d take care of the fish, but even they growled at the fish and backed away.

“Too much, you think?” Fishlegs tried to offer his serving to Meatlug, but she actually barfed up lava from the smell alone.

“Oh, weird,” Fishlegs shrugged. “The dragons usually love fish, no matter how bad it tastes.”

“Hookfang won’t even touch it, and I’ve seen him eat piles of yak dung. I mean piles and piles of fresh out the—“

“Okay, we get it, Snotlout,” Astrid interrupted, trying to shove that image out of our minds.

“Well, I chalk it up to underdeveloped palates. Both human and dragon.”

The twins took such a confident first bite, I honestly believed they actually liked the dish. But, the second the over-salted fish hit their tongues, they turned to each other, eyes wide, and the two of them swallowed slowly and painfully. Still, they must have been filled with too much pride, because they forced the entire dish down, tears welling in their eyes and spilling down onto their cheeks. Though painful, there was something admittedly impressive about watching them down the entire dish, only to collapse and fall asleep just seconds after.

The rest of the group followed suit, curling up beside their dragons and closing their eyes to drift off for the night. I pretended to do the same for a while, until I heard the snores of a few members of the group, at which point I began to gently shake Hiccup’s shoulders.

“Hey, Hiccup,” I whispered. “Wake up.” He slowly opened his eyes, sitting up and staring at me with confusion. “Everyone else is asleep. You want to go for a little moonlight swim?”

Thankfully, he smiled and pushed himself up onto his feet, holding me tight against him the entire time we walked. Given the moon’s position in the sky, I fully expected to be overwhelmed by icy waters the moment I slid in, but strangely enough, the lagoon remained relatively warm. I dipped under and back up while I waited for Hiccup, but even once he made his way in, I just swam and circled around him for a while, reveling in the quiet. It wasn’t until I saw the tiny little smile on his face that I finally stopped and waded, looking him in his eyes.

“What’cha thinking about?” I inquired, tilting my head slightly.

“You,” he breathed, swimming a little closer. “This. As much as I hate to admit it—“

“You’re actually enjoying yourself,” I finished. “Told you. You said this was exactly what the rest of us needed, but… you need it, too. It’s not good to overwork yourself.”

“I know. I just can’t stop worry about if Viggo—“

I took one big stroke forward and pressed my index finger against his lips, immediately cutting him off.

“While we’re in here, no talk about Viggo or the Dragon Hunters, okay? Like I said, I want to spend time with just _you_.”

He obliged for the time being, taking to floating on the water’s surface or ducking below the water, only to pop up just seconds later directly in front of or behind me. There was something almost childish in the way we interacted with each other, reminding me of the days when we were younger where one of us would ‘accidentally’ push the other into a lake and begin to splash them. Back then, if someone had told me what my life would be like now, I would’ve scoffed at them, but… so much had changed so quickly. It was nice to know I had one constant right in front of my face.

Eventually, the two of us made our way behind the waterfall, finding comfort in the privacy it provided us. I leaned against the stone along the edge of the water, and Hiccup mimicked my posture, the two of us smiling contently at each other. Wanting to strike up more conversation, I pointed one of my feet out and poked his leg gently.

“Hm?” I leaned my cheek against one of my hands.

“Tell me something you’ve never told me before,” I requested, raising my brows at him. Though he appeared caught off-guard at first, Hiccup managed to think up an answer pretty quickly.

“I love the mornings when I wake up before you, just as the sun’s starting to come up. And it’s peaking in through the windows, right by where we sleep; the way the beams of light hit you makes your skin look completely flawless, and you look so content. And then, you finally open your eyes, and it’s like you have two beautiful emeralds in your sockets.” He inched along the rock, moving a little closer to me. “Or, in the afterglow, when your hair fans out against the pillow, and you’re just sort of smiling at the ceiling.” He chuckled to himself. “I think that was technically two things.” I shook my head, reaching forward to cup his cheek.

“I don’t mind,” I whispered.

“Now you. What’s something you never told me?”

That was my moment. He’d set me up perfectly, and all I had to do was tell him the same things I had Fishlegs earlier. Maybe it wasn’t the exact perfect moment, but it was pretty close to it.

But, when I looked back up at him, something in my brain started screaming ‘no’, and instead, I pivoted in a different direction.

“Sometimes I think we were always going to end up together, even if I never got dropped on Berk,” I admitted. That seemed to pique Hiccup’s interest.

“How so?” he asked as he reached up and took my hand.

“Well, you and I are both the children of chiefs; I’m the eldest daughter and you’re the eldest son, technically. Our dads were both working through making agreements with each other, and I know one of the ways that’s sometimes done is through arranged marriages. I mean, yeah, Heather’s closer to your age, but… I don’t know. I just get this feeling we would have ended up together anyways.” I moved as close to him as possible and wrapped my arms around his neck. “But, I’m glad it happened this way, where everything just occurred naturally.”

“I am, too, milady.”

I laughed as I placed my head against his shoulder, shaking it back and forth when my cheeks started to get hot.

“See? It’s the things like that I’m grateful for.” Hiccup quirked an eyebrow at that statement, imploring me to explain. “I’m a pretty confident person, right? I’m strong in battle, I can address a crowd and speak without a smidge of fear, and I can stand in front of a fire-breathing dragon without flinching. But, gods, you mutter one nickname, and I become a blushing, stuttering, discombobulated mess.” I chuckled as one of my hands slid up into his hair. “The things you do to me, Hiccup Haddock.”

“Don’t act like you’re all innocent in this. All you have to do is look at me, and I feel like my legs are about to give out beneath me.” The spot where he kissed my forehead felt like it was on fire. “I love you, Reign, with everything I have.”

My heart was about to burst out of my chest as I replied.

“I love you more than anything, Hiccup.”

The two of us had kissed hundreds, maybe thousands, of times, but the one we shared in that moment had been missing for quite a while. Somehow approached with a gentle touch, like we were afraid the other was going to break beneath our hands, but the push and pull had been imbibed with a longing, a passion that never extinguished, but just sort of disappeared for a while. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt time stop around us the way it did then, but then again, my mind generally left me in those moments.

As reluctant as I was, I knew we had to return to the rest of the group and get some sleep soon.

“Come on.” My voice came out in a shocked sort of squeak. “Let’s get back before the kids notice we’re gone.”

The two of us laughed at my nickname for our friends, then as slowly as possible, we made our way to the edge of the water and hopped out, curling up as close as possible once we finally got back to the campsite and laid down for the night.

Shouts caused me to jolt awake, shooting upright so fast my head started to hurt. At least, that’s why I _thought_ my head hurt. However, a few seconds later, I realized the pain came from the fact I hadn’t realized Hiccup’s head was resting close to mine, and when I got up, our foreheads collided. Wincing, I rubbed the spot on my head until the pain faded, then turned my attention to Hiccup, who assured me he was fine, before I looked up toward Fishlegs, who had been the source of the shouting.

“Oh, Thor.”

Hiccup and I followed his gaze, and once my eyes rested on whatever he’d been panicking about, my heart began to pound faster. All of our dragons, save for Toothless, were crowded around each other, fiery saliva dripping from their teeth and lips and their saddles on the grass below them, clawed at and chewed off. I’d never seen them look this… ferocious.

“What’s going on?” Hiccup asked groggily, watching as our beloved companions snarled amongst each other. It almost sounded like they were… plotting something.

“No idea,” Fishlegs panted. “All I know is that Meatlug was sleepwalking, and when I found her, she was in a really bad mood and chased me through the forest and tried to kill me.”

All of us got up onto our feet as the dragons started to take slow steps towards us, forcing us to back up.

“I don’t think they’re playing.” At that point, my statement was definitely obvious, but I didn’t really think anyone cared at that point.

“Stormfly, no!”

Astrid’s scolding came a bit too late. Thinking fast, all of us ducked behind rocks just before Stormfly shot out her magnesium blast, much hotter and more intense than she normally did. Though they were ready to kill us, I couldn’t draw my eyes away from the dragons, fascinated by their sudden change.

“This is all your fault,” Ruffnut stated accusingly, glaring at her brother.

“My fault?” Tuff sputtered.

“Yeah. That stupid salty fish. They hate us ‘cause they went to bed all hungry and now they’re all cranky.”

“That salt was properly pinched.”

“Your brain is properly pinched!”

I rolled my eyes at the twins’ loud bickering, choosing to just let them do whatever they were going to do. Taking care not to startle the already edgy dragons, Hiccup and I crept out from our hiding spot, taking a closer look at the creatures to try and see if there was some external factor irritating them. But, with their saddles discarded on the ground, anything obvious immediately went out the window.

“No, it’s not the fish,” I corrected. “Look at their saddles. They’ve been chewed off.”

“It’s a revolt,” Fishlegs concluded. “They’re rising up against us!”

“Why would they do that?” Astrid questioned, her expression devastated as she realized her beloved dragon might have turned on her.

“I don’t know. Why would they?” Snotlout’s arms crossed against his chest as he shot a glare at Hiccup, making absolutely to effort to hide his contempt.

“You think this is my fault?” Hiccup scoffed.

Suddenly, Hookfang shot a stream of fire at all our heads, forcing us to duck quickly. Toothless, still unaffected, jumped out in front of our group to defend us, firing plasma blasts at the ornery dragons to scare them off. We couldn’t just keep standing here, otherwise we were at risk of getting knocked off.

“Okay, everyone split up!” Hiccup ordered the rest of the group. “If we’re together, we’re vulnerable.”

Astrid and I turned on our heels, starting to run in the same direction, until I noticed Hiccup wasn’t following us. There was absolutely no way I was about to leave him behind with these dragons; Toothless could only defend him for so long.

“Hiccup, come on!”

“It seems as though Toothless is okay,” he shouted back. “We’ll hold them off until you guys are clear. We’ll find you.”

Though it went against my instincts, I really had no choice. He wasn’t going to listen to me on this. Reluctantly, I followed Astrid into the woods, taking cover with her behind some bushes. I felt like eyes were constantly on me, prompting me to draw my sword.

“Reign,” Astrid hissed, discouraging me from using the weapon. I’d pulled it out subconsciously, and as I stared down at it, I realized what had just happened.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “For a moment, I thought we were back in dragon training.” I shook my head as I slipped the weapon back into its sheath and instead opted to use my shield. “It’s weird. We haven’t had to think about fighting and hunting dragons in, like, four years, but we get chased by them once, and all those lessons came flooding back.”

“If she needs to use it, she needs to use it!”

Astrid and I jumped back, startled by the voice. Somehow, both of us had failed to notice Snotlout hiding behind the bush adjacent to ours, quivering in fear.

“Snotlout, get out of here,” Astrid groaned.

“What? I’m just saying. I never should’ve trusted that dragon. The way he looks at me sometimes, I know he thinks of me as dinner, or a light lunch, at least. I should have picked a less ferocious dragon, like a Nadder, or a Thunderdrum.”

My eyebrows shot up as I stared at him, completely stupefied by the fact he thought Thunderdrums were tame dragons. Sure, Shriek didn’t normally act the way she was now, with blue fire dribbling down her lips, but she wasn’t exactly the easiest dragon to tame.

“Snotlout, if you don’t shut your piehole, I’m gonna leap into the open and plead them to eat all three of us,” I threatened.

The growls of angry dragons silenced our group, causing some members (I won’t say who specifically) to hold their breath. Hookfang landed on a ledge not far off, and Meatlug hovered a little too close for comfort, snarling and scanning their eyes over the area they’d staked out before moving on.

“They’re actually hunting us,” I sighed. “How did it come to this?”

“Let’s just hope Hiccup and Toothless get them before they get us.”

My heart weighed heavy as I took a moment to peek out from behind the bushes, finding no sign of the pair. While Snotlout was eagerly awaiting a rescue, I just wanted them to be safe. Toothless was a stealthy and strong dragon, and Hiccup was incredibly brilliant, but the two of them against five wild, ferocious dragons weren’t exactly fair or favorable odds.

The world around us remained eerily silent throughout the night. Leaves rustled in the wind every now and then, and infrequent dragon calls sounded off in the far distance, but other than that, we were completely alone for quite a long while. It was so strange to think that just a few hours ago, I’d been completely relaxed, floating in the water without a care in the world, and now I was attempting to survive my own dragon.

Bright streams of sunlight had just started to peek through the thick darkness of night, when I heard a strange rustle from the forest right in front of us. There wasn’t any breeze that could kick up the leaves, and the low growling gave me a pretty good indication of what was coming for us. I shifted onto my feet, crouching and squinting to get a better look into the pitch-blackness of the woods.

It wasn’t until I leaned just far enough forward to make me vulnerable that the outlines of a Zippleback and a Thunderdrum started to crawl forward, their eyes trained on Astrid and I. Deep discomfort settled into my stomach when Shriek licked her lips, leaving me in disbelief. My sweet, fiery girl… how could this have happened?

Astrid, Snotlout, and I gasped, then jumped up and started to run, panting and praying to the gods we were fast enough for our dragons not to catch us. Their thundering footsteps behind us moved quickly, but we had just enough of a head’s start to get through into a clearing, finding the rest of the group already huddled together.

“Barf and Belch and Shriek are right behind us!” I warned, jutting my shield out in front of me once I came to a halt. It had been a long time since I felt this helpless.

“We played right into their hands…” Hiccup realized.

“Technically, dragons don’t have hands, so that expression doesn’t—Maybe ‘we fell right into their talons’?” How could Tuffnut possibly focus on anything _but_ trying not to get killed right now?

“The point is, we’re about to be…” Hiccup stumbled over his words when Barf and Belch, Hookfang, and Shriek finally caught up to us, leaping out of the bushes. “…surrounded.”

The tiny glimmer of hope we had faded as Meatlug and Stormfly came in and blocked off our last two ways we could escape, forcing all of us into a tight clump in the center of all of them. Though I tried my best to search for some other option, any means of getting free would involve flying—something the majority of us didn’t have the ability to do.

“Hiccup, how long are we gonna wait until we make our next move?”

“What next move?” He flashed his glance down to me momentarily. “I’m out of next moves.”

Right after those words left Hiccup’s mouth, something came over Toothless, and he let out a loud, eardrum-shattering roar, extending his wings out completely to assert his dominance over the other dragons before he began to shoot at them wildly, not giving up until he’d reached his limit. The moment had been startling, but he opened up a hole for us to get through to safety.

“That way!”

The seven of us booked it into the cloud of dust, well aware the dragons weren’t far on our tail. Still, we managed to get away, ducking into a cave that Toothless sealed off with a blast that caused a cave-in. We’d at least have a moment to breathe and collect ourselves, and maybe try to figure out what was going on. No way were any of us leaving this island without our dragons, and not just because it’d be pretty impossible to get out of here without them.

“Hiccup, that’s not gonna hold for long,” Fishlegs trembled. Despite the tense situation, a wave of calm washed over me momentarily when I felt Hiccup’s hand rest against my back. “We need to find another way out of here.”

He turned to address the rest of the group, but he was just greeted with disapproving and unamused stares from Snotlout and the twins.

“Just say it,” Hiccup groaned. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“All I’m saying is we wouldn’t be in this position if your tyrannical behavior, due to your obsessive need to one-up Viggo, had not driven our poor dragons to the brink of insanity. There. I said it.” Everyone blinked at Snotlout a moment, shocked that he hadn’t held anything back… for some reason.

“Wow. That was both dramatically impressive and logically sound,” Tuffnut praised.

“Thank you, Tuffy.”

“You think this was my fault?”

Even I couldn’t keep looking at him, afraid to admit the truth. My own frustrations had been voiced on several occasions, but he still wouldn’t listen and continued to work himself, and the rest of us, to death. As much as I loved him, I’d had just about enough of this phase he was going through.

“Okay, well, how about this? If the dragons have been driven to the brink of madness, as you say, why is Toothless completely unaffected?” Hiccup challenged. It wasn’t a bad argument, but the way Tuffnut’s face changed as his eyes settled on something behind us told me Hiccup’s one piece of evidence was about to crumble.

“Great argument. That would be just as logically sound, if it weren’t for one small thing.”

The two of us turned around, greeted with the sight of Toothless bent low to the ground, pupils narrowed to slits and purple saliva spilling onto the stone. I instinctually stuck a hand out in front of Hiccup, wracking my brain for any sort of solution. Being trapped in a confined space with a snarling dragon wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that was easy to get out of.

“Look at me,” Hiccup coaxed, attempting to keep his voice calm. “It’s me, it’s Hiccup. Toothless, whatever’s going on, we can get through this. Just talk to me.” The screech Toothless let out wasn’t exactly comforting. “Toothless, just relax.”

“I am not going out this way.” Tuffnut chucked his helmet at the Night Fury, but that did absolutely nothing to discourage his pursuit. I was just about to caution him against throwing anything else, when he removed something from his pocket and threw it in Toothless’ direction.

I shook my head, disappointed in Tuff’s efforts, until the fire completely disappeared from Toothless’ mouth, and he began to thrash and roll around on the ground, like he was fighting something.

“What in the name of Thor was that?” I demanded, disturbed by what we were watching.

“That, my friend, was salt. Just a pinch.” That helped with absolutely nothing. How could something as simple and relatively harmless as salt elicit this sort of reaction from a dragon?

“Salt?” everyone questioned.

“What? I didn’t see any of you stepping up, so I went with what I had. And what I had was salt.”

“And you fed us that stuff?” Snotlout cried.

A high-pitched scream forced all of us to clap our hands over our ears, unable to let them go for even a second.

“Hiccup, it’s coming from Toothless!” Fishlegs shouted over the cacophony.

Suddenly, from out of Toothless’ ear plates jumped three small, red and brown creatures, mouths filled with rows of teeth. Completely reflexively, I crushed one beneath my feet, then stared at the other two in confusion. What on earth were these things?

“Whoa! Did you see that? It jumped out of Toothless’ skin. That was awesome. Quick! Put it on me!”

Fishlegs ignored Tuff’s request as he stepped closer to the things that had fallen onto the stone, his face immediately lighting up with recognition.

“Of course. A Grimora. That’s why the dragons were hunting us.”

“A Grim-what-a?” Even I wasn’t sure what those were.

“Grimora,” Fishlegs asserted. “It’s a rare parasite that attach themselves to dragons and release a toxin that causes them to turn wild. But Grimora usually only live in fresh water.”

Well, at least we had our answer. I didn’t like the way the remaining two eventually scurried off, but hopefully they wouldn’t be a problem.

“The lagoon,” Astrid reminded everyone. “Our dragons must have picked them up when we went swimming.”

“They chewed off their saddles to get the Grimora off of them,” Hiccup finished. “Not because they were rebelling. See? And you thought I was working them too hard.”

That didn’t change any of our minds. Regardless of the reasons the dragons revolted, Hiccup still had been pushing everyone way too hard. Our glared appeared to get the message through his head.

“Okay, you’re right,” he sighed. “I have been working them too hard. Point taken.” At least that had been taken care of.

“Okay, so all we need to do is find the rest of our dragons and throw salt on them,” Ruffnut shrugged. Sounded easy enough.

“You know, that could work.”

“Sorry, gonna have to agree with you there, Fishy.” Tuffnut clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Out of salt. Used the last of it on T and then, you know, the salt-crusted sea bass, which, might I add, no one liked. Everybody likes salt know, but when it was on the sea bass… nuh-uh.” Thankfully, it looked like Hiccup already had another plan.

“Well, we’re just gonna have to lead them to the next best salt location.” It didn’t sound that difficult in theory, but there was a major factor that made this pretty difficult.

“Lead them? They’re trying to eat us. Did you forget that?” Snotlout read my mind.

“No, just don’t let them catch you.”

Easy for him to say. He had Toothless with him.

The two of them blasted open the rock wall we’d created, and slowly, all of us crept out, keeping our eyes peeled for our dragons. The immediate area was completely silent… at least, for a while.

“Thank Thor, they’re gone.”

A low growl turned all of us around. Our dragons had snuck up behind us, crawling or floating down toward us. At least we knew where they were now. As long as we ran fast, they hopefully wouldn’t be able to catch us.

Eager to get this over with, I turned and began to sprint through the woods, following a vague path down toward the lapping sea. The sand made it a little harder to run, but I managed to get there without Shriek catching me. I stood firm in the water, debating how to get her to come in with me, but I quickly realized I wouldn’t need much effort.

“You’re a tidal class. I really don’t need to try, do I?”

A smile spread onto my face as she lept into the water, her head going underneath the small waves. Three small Grimora came flying out from the water, abandoning ship, then she emerged herself, her pupils wide and loving again. A laugh escaped me as she nuzzled one of my legs, back to her old, affectionate self.

“Hey, girl,” I chuckled. “So glad to have you back.”

I figured everything was fine now, since everyone had managed to get salt water onto their dragons and free them from the Grimora’s influence, until I heard a splash from the distance, looking over just in time to see Hiccup and Toothless go tumbling in, and a single plasma blast went off. My heart stopped in my chest, and I watched the point where they’d fallen in, begging for them to come back out.

The tensions built up in me evaporated when the pair emerged triumphant from beneath the waves, circling overhead once before they landed on the shore. The moment Hiccup slid off Toothless’ back, I rushed to him and pulled him tight against my chest, relieved both he and his dragon were okay.

That pretty much signified to all of us that it was time to go home. We all actually made an effort to gather up some sandstone, then we packed our camping equipment back up and headed back toward the Edge, arriving in time for the sunset. I’d have to repair Shriek’s saddle soon… but it could wait for the rest of the day. I honestly just wanted to go to sleep.

“Hookfang and I decided, no more vacation for us,” Snotlout yawned.

“I think a better plan would be when we need a break, we’ll just stay a little closer to home,” Astrid suggested.

“I am all for that.”

I leaned into Hiccup’s embrace, feeling exhaustion creeping in.

“Actually, the best plan would be for me to lighten up a little on my Viggo obsession,” Hiccup admitted.

“And tyrannical behavior. Don’t forget that.”

Without waiting to bid Gobber and Stoick goodbye, Hiccup and I headed back to our hut, collapsing into bed pretty much the moment we could. Finally, the two of us were relaxing, and he was actually accepting it.

The little things would start to get better.


	34. To Heather or Not to Heather (Hiccup)

Eventful mornings were nothing new on the Edge. Most of the time, we started our days off with working or patrolling around the island, and on the rare occasion, fending off an attack from Dragon Hunters. This particular morning, Astrid, Reign, and I were preparing our plan for an incoming migration of Deadly Nadders we needed to help, but that paled in comparison to the twins and Snotlout. In a strange moment of unity, the three of them were going through some training exercise together, pretending to chase something. I didn’t notice anything off about it, and was instead impressed by the effort.

“Nice to see those three training on their own,” I remarked.

“Not really like them, though, is it?”

Astrid had a point.

Our trio glanced at each other, and once we’d all caught on, we ran after the group, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Our pursuit led us all the way to Fishlegs’ hut, where we found Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut all piled on the home’s resident, eyes trained to a Terrible Terror that had landed on a trunk.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey!” Reign’s shout got all of them to be quiet. “What is going on with you three? And why are you all on top of Fishlegs?”

“It’s okay. Really,” Fishlegs tried to assure us, even as the twins and Snotlout continued to pull on Fishlegs’ limbs. After a bit more annoyance, Tuffnut held a small scroll of paper up in the air.

“Ha! The Fishmeister has been getting quite the bevy of Terror Mails, lately,” Tuffnut informed us. Reign and I glanced at each other, both shrugging; neither of us knew this was going on. Then again, we generally didn’t pay attention to Terror Mails that didn’t concern us.

“And since we haven’t been sending them…”

“That begs the question, who is our sly little friend, here, communicating with on the… sly?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And because he won’t give up a name…”

“We decided to take matters into our own hands.”

How exactly did they have so much time to focus on this? They were supposed to be taking care of chores around here, and tracking the habits of a Terrible Terror took up a lot of time—I would know. What tasks had they neglected in order to do this?

Fishlegs pushed himself up onto his feet, dusting off his clothes before he threw his hands up in surrender.

“Okay, fine.,” he groaned, reaching his breaking point with his interrogators. “If you must know—“

“Oh, we must,” Tuffnut insisted. “We must!”

“Yes, yes. We must!” I shook my head, frustrated that this had occupied so much of our attention thus far. Those Nadders weren’t going to get around the Hunters themselves, and we still didn’t have a clear diversion path.

“Guys, Fishlegs doesn’t have to tell you unless he wants to. It’s his personal, private business.”

“Well said, Hiccup.”

Still, it could be beneficial for us to know who he was communicating with. Obviously, Fishlegs wouldn’t communicate with anyone shady or evil, but whoever this was, clearly they were of some importance. Otherwise, Fishlegs wouldn’t be trying so hard to hide their name from us.

He looked around, realizing he’d been boxed in by curious faces, and caved.

“I’ve been corresponding with a certain someone who has been returning my Terror Mails in kind. Happy?” I watched as Reign’s eyes lit up and a giddy smile stretched onto her face.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” she inquired, leaning a little closer to Fishlegs. Given how close he and Reign were, or even how close he and I were, I was genuinely surprised neither of us picked up on something like this.

“Fishy’s got a girlfriend,” Snotlout and Tuffnut mocked. The second they started their taunting, Reign’s expression dropped right back down into stern.

“What’s so funny about having a girlfriend?” The two of them instantly froze, staring at her with big, scared eyes.

“Uh, well… no-nothing necessarily, per se…”

“Who is she, Fishlegs?” Astrid pressed, trying to diffuse the other situation. I reached over and took Reign’s hand, offering her a smile.

“Who says it’s a she?”

All of us glared at Snotlout, discouraging the negative connotation he tried to place on that.

“Uh, Fishlegs?” I spoke up, slightly embarrassed. “Now, I have to admit, I am curious.”

“Okay, okay,” he sighed. “It’s Heather.”

That wasn’t exactly the name I’d been expecting. My reaction paled in comparison to Reign’s, however, who appeared frozen somewhere between complete and utter shock and a smile—not that I could blame her. While I knew she was supportive of this, I couldn’t imagine the blow that came with learning her younger sister had been communicating with someone else, instead of her.

“So, wait, you’re telling me that my future wife, the future Mrs. Lout, who just disappeared after the whole Viggo fiasco, you knew where to find her and you told exactly no one?”

Snotlout had a point, minus the future wife thing.

“Yep, pretty much.” By this point, Fishlegs’ voice had gone completely dead.

“Look, guys, Heather is out on her own. She never stays in one place. We knew we’d hear from her eventually.” There was something on the end of Reign’s sentence she left out, trying her best to save face and be happy for Fishlegs.

“Yeah, but she and I have that connection,” Snotlout argued, even though it was all based on his own biases. “She should have written to me.”

“Fishlegs, how many of these correspondences are we talking about?” Astrid’s question seemed to revive the pep in the group.

Reluctantly, he opened the chest beside him, causing some of the scrolls to go spilling out. The thing had been filled to the brim, and then some, with at least half a year’s worth of Terror Mails. How long had they been communicating with each other?

Unable to contain ourselves, we all began to dig through, unfurling some of the letters and taking a glance at the insides before setting them back down.

“Fine. Go ahead. Read ‘em all,” Fishlegs deadpanned. Likely feeling guilty, Reign pushed herself back up onto her feet and set a hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“Sorry, Fishlegs,” she blushed. “I just want to make sure—“

“I know, I know,” he assured you. “You want to know your sister’s safe.” His eyes wandered past Reign, glaring at the rest of us. “You’re the only one whose motives I can understand.”

Something wasn’t right about what Heather wrote in these Terror Mails. The way she worded things… it almost sounded like she was in distress, maybe in danger. While I did feel bad about going through Fishlegs’ private notes to her, there was a puzzle here that needed to be put together. So, we all ended up taking the letters to the clubhouse, reading through them and trying to piece together what was sent near the same time. No matter which one the read, they all seemed to get darker. Once I’d finished with my batch, I glanced over the Reign, whose hand was completely wrapped around her necklace, her brows furrowed with worry. I couldn’t imagine what reading these was doing to her.

“Uh, wow. These are some depressing Terror Mails,” Ruffnut huffed. “I may need a mace to the head just to cheer me up.” Her brother attempted to oblige, but she grabbed onto the weapon to stop it before it made impact with her helmet. “Metaphorically speaking!”

“These letters don’t sound like her,” Reign sighed, resting her head on my shoulder. “She seems worried and confused.”

“Think about everything she’s been through. The only family she ever knew, gone. Then, being out there, alone, by herself,” Fishlegs pointed out.

“And lest we not forget, or forget… finding out her brother is one Dagur the Deranged.” Reign’s free arm moved around my waist, prompting me to do the same for her.

“Yeah, I can’t really blame her on that one,” she muttered. “I reacted pretty badly, too.”

“I can’t say I’d feel any different in her shoes,” I admitted.

“Shoe. Because you…” The two of us glared at Snotlout. “Never mind.”

“Hey, Heather’s risked her life to fight with us. She’s helped us save countless dragons. She’s the closest thing to actually being one of us. It just seems like we should do something to help.”

Something in what Fishlegs said sparked up an idea. Not only would it benefit him and Reign by having her closer to them, but we could all definitely use her help.

“Well, hey, what about making her one of us? Ask her to be a Dragon Rider.” I suggested. Thankfully, Reign, Astrid, and Fishlegs all smiled at that idea.

“Oh, Hiccup, I think asking Heather to join the Dragon Riders would be amazing,” Reign cheered.

“Besides, the Nadder migration is coming through here again, and Windshear could be a huge help,” Fishlegs pointed out.

“Well, I think it’s a terrible idea,” Tuff scoffed. “An awful, dreadful, unfathomable idea.”

“Very funny,” Reign snapped. “We’re trying to have a serious conversation here.”

“So am I! Look, you don’t just get to be a Dragon Rider. I’m surprised you didn’t know that. We’ve spent the last five years fighting the nastiest, the smelliest, most disgusting and often insane dragons out there. How many times have we almost gotten killed doing it?”

“There was the Screaming Death, the Whispering Death, the Red Death, and all the other Deaths. And then there was—“

“We get it, Ruff,” Astrid interjected.

“So why does she get to waltz in here, all of a sudden, like she’s one of us? Doesn’t seem fair to me.”

“And besides, who said she’d even want to be a Dragon Rider? You know, it’s not for everyone. I, myself, have had moments of doubt.” I shook my head at Ruff, while Reign appeared deep in contemplation.

“Hm. You know, Tuff’s right. About all of it. So is Ruff. I mean, my sister does tend to want to be on her own… as much as I’d love to have her here.” I mulled over possibilities in my mind, forming a compromise that would hopefully work for both sisters.

“Well, let’s invite her to the Edge. Just for a couple of days,” I proposed. “To hang out, see how she’s doing. Maybe she helps us redirect those Nadders. But nothing permanent happens without us all agreeing. Sound good?”

Thankfully, everyone agreed to that.

Reign and I helped Fishlegs get all the Terror Mails back to his hut, then the two of us decided to call it a night. As she started to take off her armor and shoes, I could tell something was still bothering her. Taking care not to startle her, I scooted over toward her side of the bed and placed my hands on her shoulders, sitting upright with my legs on either side of her.

“What’s got you down?” She chuckled, her head falling forward a bit.

“You know me a little too well.” Slowly, she picked her head back up, all the way to lay it on my shoulder. “I just… don’t understand why Heather didn’t even send me one Terror Mail. I don’t want to make it seem like I think I’m super important, but I just thought… you know, I’m her sister. I’ve been worried about her.”

…For once, I really didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t in Heather’s head, and although we knew her, it wasn’t to the point where any of us could understand the motivations behind everything she did. Family seemed important to her, but at the same time, it was like she wanted to discard the one she had. The only way we would really know was by asking her whenever she arrived.

“I wish I had an answer, love.”

The energy buzzing around the Edge felt palpable in the air, wrapping up every resident and infecting them as well. The main sources of the excitement were primarily Reign and Fishlegs, with Astrid and Snotlout not far behind them. I, myself, had to admit I was pretty excited as well, for no other reason than getting to see the person who would, in a way, be my sister as well somewhere down the line.

Heather had actually agreed to come to the Edge for a bit a little while ago, thanks to Fishlegs’ persuasion, and now we’d finally reached the day when she was arriving. Fishlegs had been antsy since the start of the week, helping to make room in Astrid’s hut for her and form a potential plan for the Nadder migration that could integrate Windshear’s abilities.

Reign had just left to go talk to Astrid for a while, when Fishlegs started squealing and shouting like a little kid on Snoggletog.

“She’s here!” he cried. “I saw her from my rock garden! Heather is here!”

I met up with Reign and Astrid, then the three of us flew over to the stables, where Fishlegs and the twins were already waiting. Windshear came around the corner, her silver scales shimmering in the sunlight, and when the two of them landed, I watched Reign straighten up a little more, a proud smile adorning her face.

“Hey, you. We thought you could use a couple days to rest up,” I explained as she slid off her dragon.

“Thanks, Hiccup,” Heather smiled. “I really appreciate this.”

Before Heather and Reign got the chance to greet each other, Fishlegs climbed off his dragon, still slightly out of breath from how fast he scrambled himself together to get there. Reign looped one of her arms through mine and stepped back, allowing them their space when she saw how her sister’s eyes lit up.

“Fishlegs!” Still unable to breathe, he just waved enthusiastically at her. “Thank you so much for the letters.” Reign and I shared a little chuckle as we watched them interact. There was something so nostalgically familiar in it.

“Hey! We should sing the Dragon’s Edge welcome song.”

“Tuff, we don’t have a Dragon’s Edge welcome song,” I observed.

“Sure we do. It’s very catchy. I can perform it in several keys and there’s sort of a dance that I do along with it.”

“Yeah,” Astrid dismissed as she emerged from inside the stables. “I think Heather would rather set her gear down and get settled.”

“Astrid!” The two of them embraced, leaving just one of us to greet her. “I’d love to hear your song later, Tuff.”

“Oh, good. Heather, you’re gonna love it. And now I have time to warm up.”

Reign grimaced and rolled her eyes, then pushed away from my side and approached her younger sister, appearing cautiously optimistic. The two of them stood there, caught up in an awkward silence for a moment, before the two of them crashed together in a tight, slightly haphazardous hug, relieved that the other was okay.

“Let’s get you settled in.” Reign pulled her a little closer by her shoulders.

“Sounds great, sis.”

Thankfully, all seemed well between them. I’m sure they’d talk about it once they were away from the group, anyways. In the meantime, I headed back to my hut with Toothless, taking to drawing out the migration path on the map and going over the plans again. The Hunters were always the biggest variable, and while they’d been predictable before, their patterns had become more erratic since Viggo had revealed himself to us. But, there was absolutely no way we were going to let them get their hands on those dragons, not even one. I’d though through pretty much every variable and formation I could by the time night fell.

Reign had been with Heather and Astrid the whole day, but I didn’t mind. She definitely needed it, especially with how hard we’d been working on mapping out this migration. I’d just resolved to get out of the hut and make dinner for the group, when a savory, magnificent smell drifted its way toward me, guiding myself, and the rest of the Riders, to the clubhouse. There stood Heather, setting down meat onto eight place settings, while Reign filled up a matching number of cups of fresh water.

“Oh, my Thor. What is that smell?” Snotlout almost appeared to be in a bit of a daze.

“Dinner,” Heather shrugged. “Reign and I got hungry. We figured you guys were, too.” I made my way to Reign and kissed the top of her head before taking a seat beside her. It was good for her to have some time with her sister, but I had to admit, I was happy to be back with her.

“Uh… this isn’t chicken, right?” Tuffnut inquired. “’Cause I don’t do chicken. Everybody knows that.” He was going through quite a lot of effort for his pet.

“Those are yak chops. The other, other white meat.”

“Great. I don’t do chick—I never do—Great, I’m in. Who’s hogging the gravy?”

I was just about to take another bite, when thousands of screeches caught my attention. I turned myself around, looking out one of the doors, and spotted our first flock of dragons coming over the Edge. At least they’d rerouted successfully.

“Uh, gang, sorry to tell you, but we’ve got more Nadders incoming.”

“Oh, come on. Now?” Snotlout groaned.

“Nadders?” Reign set down her food and turned to face her sister.

“The yearly Nadder migration takes them through the worst of Dragon Hunter territory. We’ve been herding them away and diverting them to a different route.”

“It takes them longer to get to their migratory home, but at least they actually arrive safely,” Fishlegs continued. Now was our chance to work on integrating her into the Dragon Riders.

“Heather, you and Windshear could come with us.” I tried to make it sound like an off-the-cuff suggestion, even though we’d all actually been contemplating it for a while. “We can sure use the help.” Sadly, Heather’s expression dropped.

“Windshear is still tired from the long trip.” She gestured to her Razorwhip as she roared at Meatlug, scaring the poor Gronckle. “We’d only slow you guys down.”

It made sense. Besides, it was important not to push her into too much too soon.

“Maybe Meatlug and I should stay behind to keep Heather company.” I smiled at Fishlegs as he tapped his fingers together nervously.

“Hey, I can keep Heather company. Everyone says I’m a great company keeper.” Reign rolled her eyes at Snotlout, shooting up to her feet and pushing him toward the exit.

“Who has ever said that?” Astrid challenged, narrowing her gaze at the interrupter.

“You don’t know everybody. Shut up, Astrid.”

With that, the rest of us got on our dragons and headed after the Nadders. Our objects of focus were wily and uneasy, which wasn’t anything new. Not having Fishlegs definitely put us at a slight disadvantage, given how shockingly good they were at herding the dragons to the right place, but we were able to get them on track to their island and away from the Hunter territory, which helped me feel a bit better. The process was long and laborious, but knowing those dragons would be a little safer always made it worth it.

Unfortunately, once we made it back to the Edge, action picked back up—in more than one form. The moment I slid off Toothless, I heard the mass flapping of wings behind me, meaning we had to get back up in the air quickly. Additionally, there was quite the racket coming from the stables, both human and dragon, and when I poked my head in, I saw Heather and Fishlegs both restraining their dragons, keeping them from thrashing at each other.

“I knew this wasn’t such a good idea,” Heather sighed, her face partially hidden in embarrassment.

“Uh, what wasn’t such a good idea?” I inquired, eyes scanning over the group.

“Meatlug just went after Windshear,” Fishlegs lamented. That… definitely was alarming. Meatlug had never been a hostile dragon, unless she was coerced into it. The fact that she’d lashed out on her own perplexed me.

“And it was awesome,” Tuffnut cackled. “I mean…”

“But, is Meatlug okay? Can she fly?” Everyone quickly caught on to why I was asking those specific questions.

“Yeah, she’s fine. Why?”

“Let me guess. More Nadders?” I felt a little bad for enlisting services right after I’d used them, but we didn’t have much of a choice right now. Dragons didn’t operate on a human-friendly schedule.

“Heather, we could really use you. This is a big flock that’s coming in.” Despite our need, the pair remained hesitant—not that I blamed her after the supposed outburst.

“I don’t think Windshear can—“ We really couldn’t afford for her to refuse this time around.

“Windshear will be fine,” I assured her. “We’ll keep an eye on her.”

Heather didn’t seem completely on board, but still agreed to come with us. Reign appeared hesitant about the move as well, asking me quietly if she thought this was really the best idea. I knew she was just looking out for the safety of the group, and her sister, but I just tried my best to tell her we needed the help and that Windshear would adapt to the group quickly.

Reign didn’t look like she believed me.

Since the Nadders had a substantial head start on us, it took the eight of us until well into the morning to catch up with them. At the rate they maintained, we were getting dangerously close to the borders of the Dragon Hunter territory, meaning we’d have to work a lot faster to get these guys on the right path. Thankfully, we had the extra member to do that.

“Okay, guys, tight formation,” I ordered. The other Riders closed in on the Nadders, while Heather and Windshear hung where they were, observing carefully.

“Let me take the lead on this,” Astrid requested. “They’re more likely to follow one of their own.”

“Good call, Astrid.” Reign smiled, proud of her friend.

“Let’s take up our flanking positions and make sure there are no stragglers that break the herd.”

This time, Heather and Windshear took a position next to one of the Nadders near the back, but it didn’t go quite as planned. The wild dragon, feeling intimidated by the presence that wasn’t one of its own, growled lowly at Windshear, causing her to snap her jaws in the Nadder’s direction. It flinched and flew in closer to its group, but didn’t break the formation. That, instead, came from a few Nadders that flew over my head, going in the complete opposite direction they were supposed to.

“Guys! Small pack breaking off. Get them back!”

The twins sped up to try and deal with the problem, but something about Barf and Belch’s appearance set Windshear off, and she shot tail barbs in their direction, thankfully only getting stuck in Tuffnut’s helmet.

“Heather,” Reign warned.

“Something’s wrong with her. I’m sorry, Tuff. I don’t know what’s—“

“I guess that throws your green monster theory out the window,” Snotlout laughed.

“Hiccup, we’re not doing you guys any good.”

“Heather, it’s fine.” Reign kept her voice calm as she addressed her younger sister. “Sometimes the dragons just get a little skittish.”

“No, I’ve seen her skittish. That’s not what this is. I’ll see you guys back at the Edge. I have to figure out what’s wrong with my dragon.”

Though I wanted to head back and help her out, and I knew Reign felt the same, we couldn’t just leave these dragons on their own in good conscience. We at least had to wrangle them onto the right path, then we could focus on other things.

“Okay, guys, Nadders first, then we deal with Windshear. Ruff, Tuff! Wall of Fire!”

The twins cheered boisterously, then pushed Barf and Belch to fly faster creating a long stream of Zippleback gas that, when ignited, trapped our runaway Nadder and forced them back into formation. We’d gone around the complete diversion by this point, meaning we were just about wrapped up here, and could focus on what was wrong with our friend.

“Good job, gang. Now, let’s get them back on course where they’ll be safe.”

We steered the Nadders back to their path, and once we were confident they would make it to their island without any complications, Reign immediately turned Shriek around, and the two of us booked it back to the Edge. We found Heather and Windshear at the training arena, attempting to recover from the mission’s mishaps. I hung back and let Reign talk to her sister, but I was still within earshot of the conversation.

“So, uh, how’s she doing?” Reign approached her sister, smiling at her dragon, who appeared completely content now.

“Better.” Heather’s eyes fell to her shoes as she rubbed the crook of her elbow. Shriek and Windshear purred to each other, any bygones forgiven.

“She seems better.”

“I just wish I knew what happened.” Reign slung an arm around Heather’s shoulders, hugging her a little.

“Look, we’ve flown hundreds of missions. This was Windshear’s first one. You should’ve seen Snotlout when we first started. He couldn’t fly ten feet without somehow setting himself on fire.” Reign looked to me for support, and I grimaced and shook my head, almost able to smell the burning flesh even all these years later.

All of our attentions were drawn up when, out of nowhere, Snotlout swooped in on Hookfang, hovering right in front of the two women.

“Did I hear my name? Were you guys talking about me? I know you were. I’m gonna be in my hut. It’s got a great view. Come check it out.” He tried to make a relatively smooth exit, but instead, his dragon got overexcited, and ignited himself, causing Snotlout’s legs to light on fire in the process. “Hookfang!”

The three of us stared, dumbfounded at the fact he hadn’t changed, before Reign was finally able to focus back on the conversation.

“We just need to get Windshear some training. Start with simple flying drills, formations. Get her used to what it’s like to work with other dragons.”

“I don’t know,” Heather sighed, pushing away from her sister’s embrace. “I think I just need to keep her away from other dragons while we’re here.”

“Well, now, that’s gonna be kind of tough if you become a Dragon Rider.”

There it was: the truth. It hadn’t come out in the way I had hoped, the way _either_ of us hoped, but it couldn’t be taken back now. We’d both hoped Heather would react positively to the proposal, but Reign knew her sister best, which was likely why she exhibited no surprise when Heather turned to face her with panicked eyes.

“What? Why would I become—“

“Heather, that’s part of why we asked you here,” Reign admitted. Her eyes drifted away from her sister a moment, and when they rested on me, I watched her perk up again. “I have an idea. We happen to have the best dragon trainer in the archipelago right here on the Edge.” I blushed at her compliment, feeling my brain stutter a bit. “Just let him work with you guys.”

Heather looked back at her dragon, who had finally calmed down and appeared ready to fly again.

“Why not?”

Reign beamed optimistically as she sent Heather and I out for training. The sky had turned a dark grey, with clouds potentially threatening rain, but no precipitation came down on us. Still, just to be sure, we flew just above the cloud cover. So far, Windshear wasn’t exhibiting any signs of hostility, and was taking to Heather’s commands with the usual precision.

“You see? Nothing to it.” Heather nodded, still uneasy. “Let’s try a good old-fashioned Wingman formation. Toothless and I are gonna slow down and play the part of Windshear’s wingman. We’re here for cover, if anything comes up beside or behind you.”

I cranked my foot forward, completely fanning open Toothless’ tail to allow him to float backwards. I figured the movement would stir some sort of upset in Windshear, just like it had when the twins did it, but strangely, she just remained on her flight path, unaffected. Heather, on the other hand, glanced back at Toothless and I like we were about to disappear.

“Hey.” I threw her a thumbs-up, which made her laugh, melting away the fear on her face. “Not bad at all. All right, your turn. You and Windshear take our wing.”

That’s when things went wrong. Windshear kicked her legs and protested being pulled back behind Toothless, and once she was forced into it, she growled at my dragon and started to thrash her head back and forth.

“Pull back harder.”

“I am,” Heather grunted, yanking on her dragon’s saddle. “Believe me.”

Suddenly, Windshear took off, and her and Toothless seemed to engage in a contest for dominance, seeing who could fly faster. Unfortunately, Windshear was determined to win, to the point where she slammed her body into Toothless. I cried out as I was thrown from his saddle, only to be caught by Heather and Windshear a moment later. I couldn’t waste time, however, otherwise Toothless could drown. I scanned my eyes over the area below us, and once I spotted my dragon tumbling toward the ocean, I stood and jumped off Windshear’s silver back, extending the wings of the Dragonfly Two to make sure I’d float down to him carefully.

Funnily enough, Reign and Heather screamed the same way when I jumped off in the middle of the air.

Just before Toothless sunk down, I managed to get onto his back and thrust my metal foot forward, opening is tail fin enough to get us back upright and climbing up toward Heather and Windshear.

“Come on, bud. You gotta help me out here. Be the bigger dragon.”

Toothless snorted at me, but he actually fell back and let Heather and Windshear fly in front of the two of us.

By the time we got back to the Edge, the rain came down in heavy sheets, completely soaking Heather and I to the bone. Even when we entered the stables and started to get Windshear unpacked and ready to go into her pen, it felt like water was still falling on us.

“Okay, so that didn’t go quite as planned, but I promise that tomorrow—“

“There’s not gonna be a tomorrow.” I reeled back slightly at Heather’s harsh tone.

“Oh, Heather—“

“Clearly, this was a mistake. We just don’t fit in here.” Now she was just talking nonsense.

“What are you talking about? You fit in great,” I insisted. “Besides… do you really want to do that to Fishlegs? To Reign?”

“No, of course not,” she denied. “But it’s obvious that Windshear can’t work with the other dragons and someone is gonna get hurt. I knew this wouldn’t work. It’s just better if we go.”

I sighed, realizing there wasn’t much I could do to change her mind. Heather had it set in her head that there was absolutely no way she and her dragon could work with the rest of the group. The two of them had been on their own for too long, without a group and without a family to help them out.

“I’ll say goodbye to everyone tonight, and in the morning, Windshear and I will head out.” Heather placed a hand on my shoulder, getting me to look back up at her. “I really appreciate what you and my sister were trying to do, Hiccup, but this life just isn’t for us.”

Completely defeated and drained, I made my way back to my hut, finding Reign sat by our fireplace with her knees curled up into her chest, a book balanced against them. When she heard the door open, she turned in my direction with a smile on her face, but all she did was take one glace at the state I was in, and that fell away.

“Hiccup? What happened, love?” I shook my head, collapsing into one of the stools at our table. Reign stood in her spot for another minute, looking over my disheveled posture, before she crossed the room and grabbed me by my shoulders, helping me up.

“What—“

“First, get out of those wet clothes. I’m sure it can’t feel pleasant with that armor on.” She’d already turned me around and started to shove me up the staircase. “Then, we’ll talk about what’s bothering you. Something tells me I’m going to want to hear it.”

I dreaded having to tell Reign, especially because I knew she’d silently gotten her hopes up, but I figured maybe knowing before Heather dropped the news on her would help things go over a little better. Once I’d fully changed, I made my way back down the stairs, finding her waiting for me by the fire. She scooted over a little and pat the space next to her, gesturing for me to come and sit beside her. I felt guilt eat its way up my throat as I laid my head on her lap and she started to brush her fingers through my hair.

“Now, what happened, doll?” Her voice dropped down low, vibrating even in her stomach. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for whatever reaction she might have.

“Heather’s leaving tomorrow.”

The movements of Reign’s fingers stuttered, broken and caught on the same phrase, before they ceased completely and I felt her hunch down a bit.

“I should’ve figured.” Reign’s voice held mournful overtones. “She’s just not… she thinks she still has to go through life alone.”

Now, she was the one that needed the support. I pushed myself up onto my knees and slid closer to her, resting my arms around her waist.

“I think, sometimes, she forgets that we’re family because she’s just so used to family either abandoning her or trying to kill her. I keep knocking on the door, and she knows it’s her sister there, but she can’t recognize that, and she doesn’t know how to open it.” I began to run my hands up and down her back as she rested her head against my chest. “I don’t know how to get through to her. I thought, maybe, her living here for a while might help with that, but…”

Reign trailed off at the sound of footsteps coming up onto our platform. She already knew who it was, moving her up onto her feet and toward the door. Whatever Heather had to say to her, I let them take care of that on their own, but when she finally came back inside, she had a forced smile stretched a little too wide. The pins holding it in place popped out when the door shut, and I managed to catch her just before she collapsed, her breaths coming faster than she could catch them.

“I just… I just wanted… to have… one of my siblings.”

The weight of our situation still weighed heavy on everyone when we had to leave to herd the last of the Nadders. Heather had said her goodbyes to everyone last night, and although she said she would wait until we got back to leave, something told me she would already be long gone when we finished up here. Fishlegs had refused to come altogether, not wanting to miss the last few hours he’d get with the girl he liked.

Astrid dove down to a small group of Nadders that had broken off, ushering them back to where they belonged.

“Hey, where’s Fishlegs?” Snotlout sounded none-too-pleased that the absence of one of our group members meant more work for him. “Isn’t this the second time this week he’s missed all the super fun Nadder herding?”

“He’s saying goodbye to Heather,” Astrid informed him curtly.

“This is way harder on him than it is on the rest of us. So cut him some slack.” No one really bought what Reign was selling, but at the same time, it probably wouldn’t be best to argue with her. She really was trying her best to save face for everyone.

“I’m just saying we could use the help.”

“Yeah,” Tuffnut agreed as the twins popped up in front of us. “Especially with that Dragon Hunter ship coming towards us.”

Sure enough, when I followed Tuff’s point, there came a ship with the Dragon Hunter insignia on the sails, filled with soldiers ready to capture whatever they could. They’d figured us out far sooner than I’d hoped.

“Great,” I deadpanned.

“They must have figured out what we were doing with the Nadders and decided to head us off,” Reign groaned. At least we had one advantage here.

“It’s only one ship,” I observed. “We’ll take care of them, no problem.”

“Uh, I hate to keep bringing down the room, or, you know, the outside, but that isn’t exactly the case.”

Rather than the one I’d seen, there were actually four Hunter ships ready to attack.

“Okay, guys, let’s get above the clouds. We need to regroup.”

All of us tried to make a break for safety, but the Hunters moved faster, shooting out a rope that caught Hookfang by one of his legs. He flapped his wings furiously, trying to break free from the restraint, but something about it didn’t look like it’d break that easily.

“Come on, Hookie,” Snotlout shouted, growing desperate. “It’s just a little rope.”

“That’s not just a rope.” Astrid stopped Stormfly from firing, realizing the efforts were wasted. “It looks like it’s made of some kind of reinforced steel or iron.”

“That’s what I said! Come on, Hookie. It’s just a little rope made out of some kind of reinforced steel or iron.”

And then, like a miracle sent by Odin himself, two figures came over the horizon, riding on dragons… but not exactly the ones we would’ve expected them to.

“Wait, is that—“

“—Fishlegs riding—“

“Windshear?” Reign finished. “What are they doing?”

“Doesn’t matter,” I dismissed. “Right now, I’m just thankful they decided to show up.”

All of us watched with baited breath, curious as to just how exactly the two of them had managed to solve the glaring issue that would’ve impacted their teamwork. They both steered each other’s dragon with impressive control and efficiency, blasting holes in decks and slicing down sails. At one point, I saw a Hunter aim a chain at Heather and Meatlug, but before I got the chance to call out and warn them, Windshear shot at the man, and began to sink the ships with more ferocity.

“Well done, Fishlegs!” I cheered. “Switching dragons was the trick.” Joy overwhelmed me as I watched hope crawl over Reign’s smile. “Now, even if there are other dragons around, Windshear’s gonna do what comes naturally.”

“Protect Heather,” her sister grinned.

“Exactly.”

The rest of the group dove in to help them finish of the Hunters. The two of them got so caught up in rescuing Snotlout and sinking ships, neither of them noticed as a net came hurtling toward them. I cried out, but Toothless blasted a hole in the thing, and the two of us went soaring through, rendering it completely useless.

“Dragon Riders, let’s clean this mess up once and for all.”

The rest of the ships went down easy with all our efforts combined, and in no time, we were back with the Nadders and steering them onto their right path. We’d have to find a new way for them to go, now that the Hunters had figured this one out, but that was a problem for next year. In the moment, all of us just wanted to turn and head back to the Edge to relax.

Interestingly enough, Heather stuck around into the night, and even offered to make dinner again, serving up double what she had the first time in celebration of the mission. Everyone got so focused on the delicious meal in front of us, no one really stopped to question her motives, until Fishlegs pushed himself back from the table and stood to face her.

“Okay, I have to know.” His hands were shaking, but his voice remained impressively stable. “Is this a goodbye dinner or a welcome-to-the-team dinner?”

The smile Heather flashed all of us held promise.

“Either way, I cannot go back to eating regular food after…” Tuffnut managed to swallow the large bite he took. “…these delicious chops.”

“It’s not a goodbye dinner, Fishlegs.” I heard Reign gasp quietly beside me, and when I took her hand, she squeezed it with excitement. “I’m staying.”

With that assurance out of the way, Reign and I got up and went to get the fish for the dragons, beginning to feed them their well-deserved dinner.

“I thank you. And my palate thanks you as well,” Tuff declared.

“You know, Fishlegs really deserves all the credit.” Fishlegs’ cheeks burned bright red as he dismissed her compliment.

“Stop, you. You’re embarrassing me.”

“Yeah. Stop.” Snotlout snapped as he sulked in the corner with his dragon. “Fishlegs? What in the name of Thor could he possibly have done that I couldn’t do?” Reign’s entire body tensed as she rolled her eyes.

“If Fishlegs hadn’t figured out how to integrate Windshear into our pack—“

“Yeah, we’d be back to eating Ruffnut’s cooking,” Tuff interrupted. Frustrated, his sister chucked a lamb chop at him, but he just caught it and took it as his own.

“Blah, blah, blah. Whatever.” Heather approached him with the plate of the last few pieces of meat, offering him an obviously faked smile.

“More yak chops, Snotlout?” Beside me, I heard Reign snicker when she recognized Heather was just trying to shut him up. I set a hand on her back, keeping it glued there as the two of us made our way back to the table.

“Yes, please.” He was practically slobbering. “And can I get some more of those green thingies? They’re amazing.”

“Beans, Snotlout,” Reign sighed. “They’re called beans. Hiccup and I make them all the time, but you refuse to eat them.” Her hair swallowed her entire head as she rested her face in her hands. “I swear, it’s like raising a child.”

I could see some sort of taunt rising in Heather, but she was cut off suddenly when a Terrible Terror came flying into the room, dropping an alarmingly large scroll in front of Reign and I. The two of us glanced at each other curiously, then we each took an edge of the parchment, reading over the messy handwriting. The further we got into the note, the more my eyes widened, and Reign’s darkened. The implications of this message could make a lot of things extremely messy, for several reasons.

“What is it?” Astrid questioned. “Are you okay?”

“It’s Dagur,” Reign announced, her voice rife with bitter anger. “He’s been looking everywhere for his little sister. And he wants our help in finding her.” The look the sisters exchanged caused my stomach to churn.

“Well, that shouldn’t take long. She’s right there.” Reign kicked Tuff’s stool out from under him as she took large, determined strides toward Heather, facing her strong and tall.

“I knew he would come looking for me,” Heather lamented.

“Well, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

If looks could kill, Reign and Heather would have completely eviscerated and dismembered me in a split second.

“Or maybe it is.” Shaking her head, Reign turned her attention back to her sister, setting supportive hands on her shoulders.

“Look, Heather, you’re one of us now. A Dragon Rider. If you’re not ready to be found, we’ll make sure you won’t be.”

In a rare instance, Heather pulled Reign closer to her, hugging her big sister like a scared child.

“Thank you, Reign,” she muttered.

The dinner ended pretty abruptly after that, and although Reign wanted to help with cleanup, I offered to take the duty instead. All tension almost instantaneously disappeared the moment Reign was out of earshot, and Heather turned to me with a playful smile.

“What?” I questioned, pausing my work as well. Heather simply held up her left hand and pointed toward her ring finger.

I figured this was going to come up at some point.

“You didn’t do it,” she shrugged. “Thought I’d ask why.” I let out a big sigh as I started to stack up dishes.

“Things got a little overwhelming around here, and the two of us agreed anything concerning marriage should wait until after the Hunters are dealt with.” It was a good enough excuse for the two of us, but apparently not for Heather, who chuckled.

“Hiccup, if you keep putting it off because there’s some danger that needs to be dealt with, you’re never going to marry her.” Technically, she had a point. “Just go for it, when the moment is right. And, before you say anything, the perfect moment isn’t necessarily when you’re completely cleared of the storm; it’s just when you have a break in the downpour.”

It was strange: Heather was a year older than me, but when I looked at her in that moment, I saw a younger sister, just like Reign did. She was already starting to feel like a member of my distant family, even though I hadn’t taken those steps. But, when the moment was right, I’d be proud to call her my sister-in-law.


	35. Stryke Out (Reign)

A strange sensation bubbled and swirled around in my stomach, matching in ominous and slightly threatening atmosphere above Hiccup, Snotlout and my heads. So rarely did I get this feeling about missions or recon flights, but when I did, things usually ended up going pretty bad. This particular instance felt completely warranted; this morning, Snotlout woke Hiccup and I about halfway through what was supposed to be his patrol time, ranting and waving his arms about a Dragon Hunter Base—a brand new one. Of course, we jumped on the opportunity to find this thing, scrambling out of bed and throwing on armor, some of which ended up backwards, to jump on our dragons just seconds later. There was a chance the Hunters had seen Snotlout, and thus, we needed to move quickly, otherwise they might abandon the place and remove all evidence they were there. Initially, the two of us had been excited to catch some new Hunters and free some dragons, but once we took off, I started to feel off, which led us to where we were at that moment.

“The Dragon Hunter base is just ahead.” There was a hint of pride behind Snotlout’s words.

“Remember, approach with caution,” Hiccup warned. “They might be expecting us.”

“Hiccup, Hiccup! This is the easiest mission ever.” And, there was that typical cockiness we all came to expect from Snotlout. “We fly in, blast the Hunters, and be home in time for lunch. Boom!”

“While I appreciate the enthusiasm, I—“

“Come on, Hookfang!”

Snotlout and his Monstrous Nightmare sped ahead of the two of us, growing closer to the brown, rocky island. I glanced at Hiccup, the two of us shaking our heads before catching up with the pair.

I had expected to be ambushed and overrun when we landed, or at least feel like there were eyes on me, but everything was… a little too quiet. Cages along the shoreline were completely empty, the doors swung wide open. There were no carts, no discarded weapons, just a couple of lanterns in crates that had burned out the last of their oil. Not only was this place empty, but by the looks of it, no one had been here in a while. I didn’t want to discard Snotlout’s observations immediately, but it couldn’t be possible that there were people here this morning.

“There’s no one here.” I turned to Hiccup, crossing my arms and shrugging my shoulders. “It’s completely abandoned.”

“This place was crawling with Dragon Hunters this morning,” Snotlout insisted, sticking firm to his story. “Something’s wrong.”

“Did you see anything else? Any dragons?” Snotlout’s eyes flicked downwards at my inquiry.

“Well, no,” he answered truthfully.

I would’ve suggested the three of us turn and head back, and declare this a lost cause, had Toothless, Shriek, and Hookfang not leered forward suddenly, narrowing their lids and growling at the cave entrance just behind us. If the dragons sensed something, we couldn’t completely discount this place yet.

“Maybe there is something wrong,” Hiccup muttered. From in the dark depths, the distant call of dragons in distress sounded. “Yeah, really wrong. Come on!”

I removed my shield from my back and held it out in front of me, ready to deflect any potential fire from a startled dragon. Sticking close, Hiccup and I made our way down the steps with our dragons, Snotlout and Hookfang trailing far behind. There weren’t any signs of life upon initial entry, but the steps carved into the stone indicated there had definitely been people here.

“I think we’ve seen way too much of this place already,” Snotlout said hurriedly. “Maybe it’s time to head back. What do you think, Hookfang?” His Monstrous Nightmare snorted in annoyance and pushed him toward the edge of the stair he was currently on.

“Come on, Snotlout,” I huffed. “This was your idea.”

“Yes, that was before the blood-curdling dragon screams.” As if on a cue, some dragons below cried out, echoing their voices through the cavernous space. They sounded like they were in pain…

Concerned, Hiccup and I picked up our pace, running into the opening before us. Several dragon pens with prison-like doors lined the walls, their interiors too dark for us to see anything. Still, that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything inside. Snotlout crept toward one of the cells, leaning his head in close, until a Speed Stinger screamed and slammed its body against the bars, startling him.

“So, guys, question, question, question.” His voice started calm, but I could tell he was worked up. “How are we going to free these vicious and wild dragons without being, I don’t know, eaten alive?” I tapped a thumb against my chin, studying the walls carefully.

“There’s gotta be a switch or a lever somewhere.” I felt Toothless smack against my legs, stopped short when I analyzed a wall. “Once we get them free, we’ll just wait them out.”

Hiccup and I had just turned around and wandered toward the center of the room, when Snotlout stopped and shouted triumphantly, startling Shriek, who was right by his feet.

“Anything?” He stepped aside, revealing a lever sticking out from the stone.

“Yep.”

He pulled on the thing, and at first, I expected the cages to open, but instead, I heard a creaking from above us, and looked up just in time to see a door coming down in front of us. Thinking fast, I slammed Hiccup with my shoulder, using my body weight to throw him onto the side with Snotlout, Hookfang, and Shriek just before the bars slammed down against the stone. Toothless roared behind me, hitting his head against the bars to try and get to his owners, but it was no use. Hiccup rushed to the bars from his side, scanning over the divider in a desperate attempt to get me and his dragon out.

“Hang on! I’ll get you out of there!” Snotlout assured us.

He pulled up on the lever, but we should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. Rather than the divide going back up, large plumes of purple gas came shooting upward from small holes in the ground. Whatever air I had left in my lungs was instantly replaced by whatever this was, and I felt my head growing heavy, the room spinning violently. Still, I managed to make my way to the bars, gripping onto the slats between them. Hiccup’s hands fell over my own, and I heard Toothless give off a plasma blast, but it was no use. Green material meant it was dragon-proof.

Whatever Hiccup said went completely unregistered before my mind completely gave out.

“Shriek!”

The world came flooding back to me all at once, shooting me up. My head was still swimming under powerful, heavy waves, but I at least could sit upright. I’d thought I was back on the Edge for a second, but the environment around me absolutely indicated otherwise. Last I checked, Hiccup and my hut wasn’t made of stone… or filled with angry dragons—nor did we have any sort of shackles I clamped around my ankle at night.

Beside me, I heard a groggy chortle, directing my attention down. Beside me, Toothless had been chained up and muzzled, preventing him from breaking us out of here. It wasn’t the dragon I’d been expecting, but at least he was here with me. Better that than in the hands of some Hunter, or on a boat we’d never be able to catch.

“Hey, bud.” I reached over and pet the top of his head. “Don’t worry. I’m gonna figure out where we are and get us out of here.” I yanked on the shackle, but it wouldn’t budge, locked firmly.

Realizing I wouldn’t be able to break this thing myself, I pushed myself to my feet and started to walk slowly toward the chained-up dragons on the other side of the room. The Nadder, Gronckle, Monstrous Nightmare, and Razorwhip were all covered in scars and deep thrash marks, some fresher than others. Wherever this was, these dragons were likely being treated like slaves.

The snarling of a Speed Stinger drew me over to the doors of the cage, allotted with just enough room to see through. On the other side was an arena, the stands packed with people jeering and booing, all riled up by the scene below them. The Speed Stinger I’d heard dashed forward, and I could hear the whizzing of tails thrashing out. I felt disgusted, and disgusting, as I watched, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the horror.

“Dragon fights,” I snarled. It dawned on me, suddenly, why Toothless had been taken here. “We have got to get out of here.”

Before I could even begin to form some sort of escape plan, the lock on the door behind me clicked, and I turned around to see two Hunters standing in the warm light of the corridor, their harsh gazes lingering on me for far too long. I planted my feet, standing as tall as I possibly could to face them. The monsters before me didn’t appear intimidated, but that would be their first mistake.

My heart broke as one of the Hunters slammed his weapon against the ground, silencing the dragons across from me and causing them to whimper and slink back.

“That’s right, you smelly beasts. You know who the boss is,” the one on the left taunted, pointing to the creatures like they were a spectacle.

“Who’s she?” the other Hunter asked, pointing his spear toward my face.

“Her? She was with the Night Fury. Dagur’s other sister.” I wanted to snap at them, demanding they at least address me by name—which I was sure they knew, no thanks to my brother—but these men weren’t exactly the pinnacle of ‘respect’.

“I’ve heard about her. She’s a friend to dragons.” The two of them laughed at what they viewed as a joke.

“Good. Then maybe she’ll be useful.” Absolutely not. No way was I going to help them, nor would Toothless, evidenced by the way he crouched low to the ground and growled at them. “I’ve got a very special event planned for this dragon. Don’t you worry, my friend. I’ll let you watch.”

I desperately wanted to run and them, slam them onto the ground or use their weapons against them, but I was quickly humbled when I tried to charge, and got yanked backwards just when they were within the reach of my fingertips by the restraints around my leg. The Hunters laughed, pointing at me and enjoying the fact they’d managed to keep the Berserker from fighting.

“Don’t touch that muzzle.” The Hunter slammed the door to the cell shut, leaving me to try and figure out a way to escape on my own.

The issue ultimately became that Toothless wouldn’t be able to fly. The Hunters had taken it from him, and without the invention, he wouldn’t be able to catch enough wind to fly. Maybe, I could get one of these other dragons to trust me, and they could carry Toothless in their talons, but that was such a long shot. They likely didn’t trust any humans, and I had a hard time when it came to being calm around tempestuous creatures. I wouldn’t get scared, I just felt the need to match their temper. So far, the results of that sort of trial weren’t exactly effective.

“Ladies and gentlemen, get ready!” I peered out through the slats in the doors again, spotting that one Hunter standing above the crowd. “Tomorrow night, two new dragons enter the ring in a battle royale! Only one dragon will leave victorious. Will it be the Razorwhip, or the Night Fury?”

Upon hearing the rare dragon breed’s name, the crowd came back to life, murmuring to each other and gasping at the chance to see a real, live Night Fury. Thing was, if I had anything to say about it, they wouldn’t get their chance.

After making sure none of the Hunters would be coming back after the crowd dissipated, I crouched back down onto the stone, trying to picture possible means of escape. Hopefully, the rest of the Riders were out looking for us, and had already at least figured something out. If they came, not only would it be easier to get out of here and fend off the Hunters, but we could free these dragons as well.

But I couldn’t bank on my friends finding us. I had no idea where we were, or even that this place existed, likely meaning it would be difficult for them to find. I had to take matters into my own hands, and then adjust if they actually managed to find Toothless and I.

Slipping out through any cracks left in any doors wouldn’t work. Even if I could somehow get the shackle off my ankle, which would need fire different from Toothless’, I had absolutely no way to get off this island without them catching us. Every single plan I conceived had one major hit: I needed to fly a dragon. And, since Toothless was both out of commission and out of the question, I had no choice but to rely on training one of these other dragons. That wasn’t a quick or easy process, but it was all I could do at this point.

I still had to try and figure something out, in case that idea went south. Was it even possible to do this without dragons? I’d been so reliant on them since we started training them, I’d completely forgotten how to fight without their aid.

Toothless’ purr as he curled up beside me brought a temporary smile to my face. His head against my lap brought a momentary comfort, and for a little while, I could pretend this was going to work itself out just fine.

“You get some rest, bud,” I soothed. “I’ll sleep once we get out of here.”

My brain ran at full function even past when the sun came up, kept at complete capacity likely due to a mix of stress and desperation. Exhaustion wasn’t even something familiar to me right now, too focused on the extremely pertinent issue before me. I glanced through the slats in the door, allowing the warm sunlight to kiss my face as I got a feel for the arena’s layout. It was pretty much a carbon-copy of the one on Berk, which hopefully meant the chain cover would come off if hit or pulled on hard enough. That would certainly be helpful.

The dragons were my key.

I knew all these breeds well, but these particular dragons reminded me more of the ones Hiccup, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and I had found on that one island. They were angrier, and more likely to bite, meaning I had to be extremely careful. Starting with a Nadder maybe wasn’t by best decision, but it was the one right in front of me.

Unfortunately, the second I got too close, the Nadder spread its wings to try and intimidate me, and the Monstrous Nightmare beside it lit itself of fire. Slightly startled, I stepped back, and Toothless snarled at them, baring his teeth and moving in front of me for protection. There was something nice in knowing that, although I wasn’t his rider, Toothless still felt that instinct to protect.

“Hey, back off, Toothless.” I placed my hands on his head, indicating I was okay. “They can’t help it. They’re starving, injured, and scared.”

The only dragon not threatening to kill me with the small Gronckle, cowering in the corner and whimpering. Generally, Gronckles tended to be friendlier dragons, so this one was definitely a better place to start.

“Okay, how about you?” Contrary to my expectations, when I approached the dragon with my hand outstretched, it snarled at me.

This was like starting at square negative one hundred. How did Hiccup do this without losing his mind? He always had such a calm presence when it came to the dragons, and it was like they could sense his affection for them. Even when they tried to eat him or shoo him away, he pushed forward, unwilling to leave any dragon in danger.

Now, I had to think like him, not myself. Though I could train dragons, my instincts were to defend by fighting and force. Instead, I’d have to be calm and empathetic, and gain trust not through deception, but through genuine emotion. I had to treat them like I did my friends.

I was going to try the Gronckle again. It still growled and snarled at me, but when I managed to back it closer to the wall, it stared longingly at the stone and began to lick it. It wanted to eat some of that rock, but it hadn’t managed to break any off. If I could use something to chip away a piece, I might be able to gain its trust.

Carefully, so as to not startle any of the dragons, I detached my shoulder armor and used the cup of the one on my right shoulder to bang on the stone wall next to me, loosening a piece of it and scooping it out with the protective accessory. I made sure to attach it back to my shoulder again, just as a precaution, before extending the tiny piece of rock out to the Gronckle. It wagged its tail a little, but still approached me with caution.

“Hey, look, a delicious rock.” I smiled at the dragon, extending my hand out a little closer to it. “Mm. Num-num-num.” I paused, my head falling down against my chest for a moment. “Gods, I really sound like Hiccup.”

Despite my momentary drop of character, the Gronckle waddled over to me and took the rock from my hand, chomping down and swallowing it quickly. This one held promise.

“Yeah, yeah, good Gronckle. That’s it,” I coaxed. “Okay, let’s try this.”

Putting complete trust in this dragon I knew absolutely nothing about, I closed my eyes as I extended my hand out, palm facing the its nose. Typically, with Hiccup, this was the part where the dragon would nuzzle into his hand and return that trust, but instead, I just heard the Gronckle growl at me, forcing my eyes back open to make sure I wasn’t about to get my hand eaten.

“Well, it’s a start,” I shrugged.

Jingling keys shot me up to my feet, and I took a defensive stance near Toothless. This time, two Hunters came in alongside the one leading the fights. At first, they didn’t pay any mind to myself and Toothless, instead forcing the poor Razorwhip at the end of the room into a dragon-proof cage. It made a vain attempt to scare them off, but its weakened state did nothing to scare the Hunters.

“Now get the Night Fury.”

Planting myself as firmly as my body allowed me, I moved in front of Toothless, ready to defend him from all sides. They were bigger than me, but I could use that to my advantage if I did this right.

“You stay away from him!” I glowered.

One of the Hunters struck me across the face, clearly trying to knock me down, but I managed to bear the brunt of the hit. In his shock, he left himself open for a split second, so I grabbed onto the hand he still had raised and crouched down, using my own strength with his body weight to throw him to the floor. I slammed one foot against his chest, bracing myself to dislocate his shoulder, but that actually created the error in my execution. Without thinking, I’d used the foot with the chain on it to restrain him, and just before I twisted the joint out of place, he grabbed the chain with his free arm and pulled on it, causing me to slam against the ground. Pain surged through me, even as I tried to stand, and I could already feel the pulsing spots where several bruises and welts would form.

I pushed myself up too little too late. The Hunters had already grabbed onto Toothless and forced him into the other cage, and when I tried to run to him, the head Hunter grabbed me by my neck, dangling me there and forcing me to watch as he was wheeled away. I struggled and clawed at his hand, desperately attempting to escape and breathe, but I’d officially been put at their mercy. All I could to was fail until he dropped me to the ground; the gasp I took in was so violent, I coughed with my entire body.

“You stay feisty. I like that.” A disgusted shudder ran through me as he licked his lips.

For a split second, the doors opened, but I was in no condition to try and run—not to mention, I still hadn’t gotten one of these dragons on my side. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be my only window to escape.

“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight, I bring you, for the first time in the ring… a Night Fury!” The people cheered at the thought of a Night Fury fighting. They made me absolutely sick. Sure, we had fought dragons and tried to defend ourselves, but we would never force them to fight each other. Even back then, it seemed cruel. “Battling the most vicious dragon this side of Changewing Island, the Razorwhip!”

Once the lead Hunter was out of the way, the cages were lifted, setting Toothless and the Razorwhip free. The two of them circled each other, assessing the prey in front of them, and once it got a good enough idea of what it was facing, the Razorwhip flicked its tail out in Toothless’ direction, startling him long enough to get up on its hind legs and tackle him to the ground. My hands shook with fear, Toothless just narrowly managing to avoid the snaps of the dragon’s jaws.

“Toothless, get out of there!”

It was no use. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t fly right now.

Thankfully, he managed to wriggle his way out of the Razorwhip’s grip, and fired a plasma blast to get it to back up. The Razorwhip’s fire broke the platform Toothless had been wheeled in on, but at least it never actually hit him. All he maintained, at least for the moment, was one scratch on his paw, which he quickly brushed off as the Razorwhip started to fly around the arena. Toothless watched the pattern of its flight for a bit, then bounded up the side of the arena, cutting off the dragon’s pursuit and pinning it to the ground. The way he made his teeth appear and reared his head back stopped my heart altogether.

“No, no! Toothless, no!”

He actually listened to me. Rather than finishing off the Razorwhip, he looked to me with those curious, loving eyes, and instead allowed his opponent to push him off. Once he was upright, Toothless dangled his tail in front of his face, swinging it back and forth in a gentle rock. The Razorwhip became mesmerized by the movement, following Toothless all the way back, and when it was in the right position… he blasted the rope holding up the cage, defeating the Razorwhip without harming it.

“Thank Thor,” I sighed, relieved. “You did it, bud. You did it.”

Playing up his part, Toothless turned to the crowd, letting out a triumphant roar and spreading his wings as they cheered.

Once the Hunters returned Toothless to me and left the room, the first thing I did was hug him around his neck, thankful in the moment that he’d survived the fight, and managed to play fair. The cut on his paw would need attention, since Thor knows the Hunters wouldn’t help him, so I just ripped off the bottom part of my shirt to use as a temporary bandage.

“You did a great job today, Toothless,” I whispered as I scratched behind one of his ear plates. “I am so proud of you. And… I know Hiccup would be, too.” The mention of his rider’s name caused him to purr sadly. “I know, I know. Don’t worry, we’re _going_ to get back to him. I promise you.”

The love snapped itself away when the door swung open, and the Hunter heading the fights entered with just enough fish for Toothless, and that’s it. I didn’t care about my own meals, but the fact he wouldn’t even bring enough for all the dragons was deplorable.

“To the victor goes the spoils.” I stood and turned to face him after he threw the fish down to Toothless, who refused to touch the stuff.

“All right, he fought for you, he made you a nice fortune. Now you need to let us out of here,” I demanded.

“And why would I do that?” The Hunter just laughed at me, not at all taking anything that came out of my mouth seriously. “When word gets out that I have a Night Fury, Vikings will come from all over to see it fight.” An eager, yet still menacing, grin spread onto the Hunter’s face. “Night Fury, meet your next opponent: the Triple Stryke!”

My eyes shot open wide as the gate opposite our cell opened. Two glowing, red eyes stared straight at Toothless and I from the darkness of the abyss, and when the dragon emerged, nothing looked much better. The Triple Stryke was large, easily two times Toothless’ size, and ran in on its hind legs; the ones it had up looked like the claws of a crab, and its tail could separate into three pieces and whip together quickly, each one with a stinger on the end. Not only was this dragon fast, it was dangerous, and though I had faith in Toothless, there was no way.

This was our last shot to get out of here, regardless of how I did it.

Toothless still refused to eat his fish, but I could use that. Of all the dragons who liked it, the Monstrous Nightmare would be my best shot. I still refused to sleep, but at least closed my eyes until light started to press against my lids, to stop the burning sensation. The second I knew the sun was coming up, I got to work. The Monstrous Nightmare let me get close enough to dangle the fish in front of him, but when he took it and started to chew, his pupils turned to slits, and he spit it back out, groaning in pain.

That was familiar…

“I’ve seen this before. Hang on.”

I snatched another fish by my feet and dangled it just out of the Nightmare’s reach, causing it to open its mouth wide. Sure enough, there was the exact thing I’d been expecting. The hard part was getting it out.

“Okay, call me old fashioned, but I’d prefer not to lose a limb.” My eyes momentarily flicked back to Toothless. “Even if that does seem to be the trend in this family.” In a split second, I reached into the Nightmare’s mouth and slid the silver ring off its tooth. My arms instinctually flew over my head, but when the bite never came, I relaxed and looked up at an affectionate dragon. “That was the problem.”

The way the Monstrous Nightmare nuzzled me assured me he was on my side. That was one dragon down, three to go.

Next up was that Nadder. It kept insisting on using the same techniques as before, but now that I had a better feel for what I was up against and could focus on all that dragon training I’d done over the years. This Nadder could squawk and try to make itself look as big as possible, but I knew how to completely confuse it and bend it to my will.

“Hey, hey. It’s all right. It’s okay. I’m just gonna find the blind spot, and…” I ducked under its chin and scratched, causing it to let out a much more content grumble. “There you go. How’s that feel? I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Two of the four dragons taken care of. I was about to move onto the Gronckle, already starting to remove my shoulder plate to break away more of the stone wall, when the doors opened, and three hunters plus the leader ushered the Razorwhip back inside. It sulked back into its corner, and the three Hunters shuddered as they approached the powerful dragon, clearly afraid.

“Make sure you lock that manacle tight,” the lead Hunter cautioned. “A Razorwhip tail can cut through anything.”

That didn’t make me lose hope. Razorwhips were as tempestuous as Thunderdrums, and I didn’t have the right materials to train one, so I just had to hope breaking it free would be enough to gain its trust. The Gronckle swayed over easy, tempted by the endless amounts of rock I chipped away, and while I had enough dragons to get out of here, I would feel terrible if I left any of them behind.

The Nadder and the Monstrous Nightmare both had strong enough fire to break the manacle… maybe. The green material didn’t give me a lot of hope, but it was worth a try.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the main event! The reigning champion, the Triple Stryke. Versus the newcomer, the Night Fury!”

I could hear the crashes, bangs, and screeches of the fight beginning, meaning my window had opened. I motioned for the Nightmare and Nadder to start honing in on the restraint, heating it to the point it turned red. Hopefully, if the two dragons shot at it for long enough, the thing would start to melt. Every now and then, I glanced out at the fight, and although there were moments where Toothless hit the Triple Stryke, it was stronger and faster than him.

“There’s only one way Toothless is gonna survive.”

Desperate to get him out of there before the worst-case scenario kicked in, I started to pull on the Razorwhip’s manacle. Something in me thought I could pry it open, in some deus ex-machina moment, but the bonds were too tight. I couldn’t get this chain off myself, or the dragon, and I didn’t have many other options…

“Reign! Yes!”

I practically jumped out of my skin at the sound of a voice outside the door, but when it went crashing down, all of that didn’t matter. I felt like I was about to go limp as Hiccup tackled me to the ground, his arms secured firmly around my waist and behind my head. The dire situation faded away for a moment, leaving just the two of us wrapped in relief that the other was alive and here. He kept his kiss brief, then got the two of us up onto our feet.

“Thank Thor you’re okay,” he breathed, resting against my cheek.

“I’m fine,” I assured him. And that’s when reality came flooding back in. “It’s Toothless I’m worried about! We gotta hurry!”

Hiccup looked back at the doors, taking in the fact his dragon was being forced to fight, and I could see his anger start to boil up, when he noticed the other dragons were just waiting for our command.

“Did you train all these guys?” I smirked at him, glad he sounded impressed.

“I had to be you for a day,” I shrugged.

“Well, that’s ironic.” I cast my eyes over to Heather and Astrid, who exchanged a strange smile.

“What are you two talking about?” I heard Hiccup clear his throat uncomfortably.

“Hiccup totally turned into you for a bit!” Heather exclaimed as Windshear broke the manacle on the other Razorwhip’s tail, and then my own shackle. “We were interrogating some Dragon Hunters, and all of a sudden, he got way up in one of their faces and started threatening them. It was so crazy!” I laughed and looked to him.

“Oh, great. We’re at that phase in the relationship.” I said it completely deadpan, but Hiccup knew I wasn’t actually upset about it.

The continuous sound of plasma blasts drew the two of us back to the doors. Toothless emerged from a cloud of dust, his pupils narrowed into slits. The constant attacks had turned on his survival instincts, molding him back into the ferocious, deadly dragon humans had forced him to be. He’d completely forgotten himself without one of us to coach him through.

I gasped in horror when Toothless took to the air, sights set on the kill as the Triple Stryke closed its eyes, preparing for its fate. My hand squeezed Hiccup’s tight, wishing I could rush out and intervene, or that he didn’t have to be here for this.

But, all of a sudden, something in Toothless’ face changed. I couldn’t understand what changed his mind in that moment, but his pupils expanded again, and he landed just in front of the Triple Stryke, purring at it instead of growling and thrashing.

Hiccup and I sighed in relief, then gathered everyone up, releasing the dragons from their chains and preparing to leave. The boos of the audience spurred us further, and right as I saw Ryker emerge from the other side, all the dragons pulled together and blasted down the doors, finally freeing me.

“This ends now!” I screamed, standing alone before Ryker. He never truly scared me, but especially now, I saw him as nothing but a pathetic coward.

The Nadder and Razorwhip teamed up on the Hunters, throwing them away easily and leaving them to the will of the Triple Stryke. I couldn’t help but feel triumphant and perhaps a bit cocky when I stood over the Hunter that had been running these fights, now completely at the mercy of his own game.

“I would get out of here if I were you.”

Ryker fell soon after, turning and running without even attempting to put up a fight. I could hear Fishlegs and Snotlout scaring away the audience, and once they got the top of the arena off and the other dragons fled, I let out my call for Shriek, smiling wide when she came bursting in and nuzzled up to me.

“Hey, girl! I’m so glad to see you again.”

Astrid and Heather returned with Toothless’ tail fin, and once Hiccup attached it back to his dragon, we were pretty much ready to go. However, the Triple Stryke still hadn’t escape, and instead just stared at me, cocking its head.

“Go on. Go,” I encouraged. Still, the Triple Stryke didn’t budge.

“He’s been in captivity too long, Reign,” Fishlegs theorized as he landed behind me. “He doesn’t know how to be free.”

Toothless and the Triple Stryke communicated with each other in their own language, and something about what they had done changed, because the Triple Stryke finally took to the air.

“Yes!” I cheered, my fist involuntarily pumping into the air. “Come on, guys. Let’s go home.”

Our group followed the Triple Stryke out, heading in the direction of Berk as the sun set. Once our dragons leveled out, I steered Shriek closer to Hiccup’s side, wanting more than ever to be near him.

“It’s good to have you back,” he smiled as he reached over and took my hand. “I was really worried.”

“I wasn’t worried for a second,” Snotlout scoffed—despite the fact he was the one that got us into this mess.

“Sure, you weren’t!” Fishlegs drawled. “After today, I think it’s safe to say Hiccup would’ve _killed_ you if we hadn’t found Reign. And if he didn’t Heather definitely would’ve.”

Snotlout laughed loudly, clearly compensating for the fact he’d been exposed.

“Shut up, Fishface!”

I wanted to retort, but became distracted by the Triple Stryke, who twirled and bounded up and down in midair effortlessly.

“Look at that magnificent creature,” Tuffnut marveled. “So dangerous, so deadly. I shall name him ‘Sleuther’.” Not quite the name I expected after that description, but the way the rest of the group reacted made me think it was important to today in some way, so I left it.

Sleuther appeared to like the name, too, based on the way he twirled again, then fanned out his wings, flipping himself upside-down and floating over my head.

“Hiccup, I think he wants to come back with us,” I observed, glancing at the dragon above me. Hiccup appeared to be on the fence, likely because he didn’t really know the Triple Stryke, but when Sleuther stuck out his tongue, and Toothless did the same, he laughed, and his mind appeared made up.

“Sleuther, I think you’ll like the Edge.”


	36. Tone Death (Hiccup)

**_Good god, the amount this episode makes me absolutely CRINGE. Not gonna lie to y’all, writing this one’s gonna be rough for me. I’m going to skip over most of the singing/ lyrics because I can’t, I just can’t. It’s just such a weird episode. I feel like the tone doesn’t fit the rest of the show._ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -- - - - -- - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -_ **

“Okay, gang!”

I turned Toothless around to face the rest of the Riders, hovering underneath the night sky. We’d been tracking a network of Dragon Hunters and smugglers for a while now, and after quite a bit of exploration, figured out where we could most likely pin them down. Unfortunately, the location turned out to be an entire network of islands, so we’d have to change up our plan in order to find where the next drop of items and dragons was going to be.

“Stay with your teammate and lock down your specific island.”

“This Dragon Hunter is sneaky,” Reign continued. “He comes in, transfers his cargo, and slips out under the cover of darkness. Very mysterious.”

“Very boring,” Snotlout yawned. “Can we get to it?”

Due to the uneven number of dragons, Reign, Snotlout, and I ended up as a trio. Under normal circumstances, that would’ve likely increased our chances of finding this guy, if it wasn’t Snotlout. It’s not that I didn’t have faith in him, he just had a tendency to get a little… overly confident, which usually led to someone getting hurt or captured. Still, despite his history, Snotlout had matured quite a bit in the last year.

“So, I need you to put in a good word for me, Reign.” She raised her eyebrow at Snotlout, wary of his request.

“What? With who, Astrid?” Snotlout waved his hand dismissively.

“Please,” he scoffed. “I’m so over Astrid. Someone else can have her.”

…And there went any of the respect I had for Snotlout’s growth. Moving fast, I grabbed Reign’s arm and pulled on it slightly, keeping her from charging toward him on Shriek. While the comment was most definitely misogynistic and rude, but we couldn’t afford for any slip-ups right now.

“Listen, I know Heather has been dying to approach me but her fear’s got her ‘scurred.’” Reign groaned as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

“Yeah, I don’t think Heather gets ‘scurred’, Snotlout.” The smirk that crossed Reign’s face didn’t exactly make me feel content. “Besides, I’m not sure you’re ready for a woman like Heather. She’s far too, uh, sincere, honest, brave.” Interestingly enough, those were probably the three words I’d use to describe Reign to other Vikings; definitely something that ran in the family.

“I can fake honesty, I can fake sincerity, I can fake all those things,” Snotlout quickly defended.

“Oh, yeah, and by the way, she’s smart, too.” Yet another thing she had in common with her sister.

Not wanting to entertain that conversation anymore, Reign and I pulled Shriek and Toothless upwards a little more, making sure we were still at a point where we could at least see Snotlout. Once we were over our island, I turned to Reign and offered her a comforting smile.

“I’m guessing you feel pretty great about having Heather on the Edge, huh?” Reign’s cheeks turned red.

“Is it that obvious?” she laughed.

“Well, you go on patrol with her pretty much every time, you do all your training sessions with her, not to mention the two of you cook dinner together every night.” Concern crossed Reign’s face, and I quickly caught onto what she was thinking, causing me to rest a reassuring hand on her own. “Hey, hey, I’m not upset about it. It actually makes me really happy to see you spending so much time with your sister.” Reign bit down on her lip, trying to restrain the goofy grin I knew was fighting to show itself.

“I’m just really happy to have family to spend time with,” she admitted. “At least one of my siblings is sane, right?”

I froze for a second, unsure of what to say. There was absolutely no way she would believe me, that her brother might be leaning closer to sanity, but I thought, maybe, hearing it from someone she trusted might help.

But, before I could get that chance, a bright flare of magnesium burst in the sky, indicating Astrid had found our target. Snotlout, Reign, and I were pretty far away from their location, but if we moved fast, we might be able to make it. No doubt the Hunters were already scrambling to get themselves out of there. By the time Reign and I reached the scene, the other Riders were attempting to catch what appeared to be a dragon egg, flying through the air and bouncing from Rider to Rider in an attempt for someone to get a firm grip on it. Heather and Windshear managed to get it to roll down her tail, but the Razorwhip couldn’t wrap her tail around it in time, causing it to teeter on the edge of a cliff. Thinking fast, Toothless and I swooped up under the cliff, catching the fragile specimen just as it fell off.

“Well, that was fun,” I deadpanned as Toothless and I flew back up so we could see the rest of the group. “Hey, I’ve got an idea, how about we get this back to the Edge, safely.”

We finally made it back home by the time the sun started to come up, and although all of us were tired, we had this egg to try and figure out. Reign and I gathered up some dead grasses, branches, and fallen leaves, building a little nest for the thing to rest on. We’d still need a way to keep it warm, but one of our dragons could probably take care of that. In the time we made the egg comfortable, Fishlegs went to retrieve his and my notes, trying to figure out what exact breed this was.

“It’s definitely not a Changewing,” I thought aloud, scanning my eyes over the Book of Dragons pages.

“Thank Thor,” Fishlegs sighed.

“And it’s not the type of any of our dragons,” Reign added.

“Oh, can you imagine Meatlug with her very own egg?” Fishlegs squealed, looking down at his sleeping Gronckle excitedly. “It would be so cute. Aw.” Reign and I just shook our heads, trying to move on from that.

“I don’t think it’s in here, Fishlegs.” I slammed the large book shut and set it on the table, shifting one of my arms to rest around Reign’s waist. She flashed me a brief, slightly sleepy smile, then rested her head against my shoulder.

“Well, someone certainly has their own ideas on what it is,” Tuff chuckled. Impressively, Chicken flapped her wings and planted herself on top of the egg. Her motherly instincts clearly kicked in, even when the egg didn’t belong to her own species. “Look who’s feeling motherly? Aren’t you, little chicken? Give me a kiss.” Instead, Chicken bit down on Tuff’s finger. “Ow! Easy, pal, I’m on your side.”

“If you’re gonna hatch that egg, I think you’re gonna need a little more power than that, Chicken. But it was a nice try.” Reign, Fishlegs, and I turned away from that scene, still trying to figure out what sort of dragon we were harboring.

“Don’t listen to him, Chicken,” Tuff dismissed. “Haters gonna hate, hatchers gotta hatch. And, buddy, you’re a-hatchin’.” Fishlegs’ cards reaped absolutely no rewards, leaving us with a limited amount of resources left.

“We should check the Dragon Eye notes again, just to be sure,” Reign suggested.

“Okay, but I didn’t see anything in there about eggs or hatchings,” Fishlegs shrugged. It was at least worth a second glance.

As we started to walk away, Tuffnut tried to get our attentions, but we just dismissed it for now, more focused on solving this mystery so that we could move on to figuring out how to care for it. However, a crackling noise caused the three of us to whip back around, and when we looked toward our newfound object, spotting long veins of breaks spreading along the fragile surface.

“Tuffnut!” I cried.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Reign demanded. Tuffnut’s once optimistic expression dropped quickly into one lacking amusement.

“Really?” The four of us crouched down beside the egg, watching it intently as we waited for the pieces to finally fall away. “Kind of makes you wonder what came first, the chicken, or the chicken.”

Suddenly, the grey, spotted shell burst open, revealing a bright orange and yellow baby dragon inside. It couldn’t open its eyes at first, spreading its wings and yawning, but it was already much bigger than I had expected. Unfortunately, the scale colors and patterns weren’t anything that struck a clear chord in my memory, and based on the way Reign and Fishlegs looked at the baby, neither of them knew.

“What is that?” Fishlegs murmured, still staring holes into the baby dragon.

“It’s familiar, but I can’t place it.”

The baby dragon finally managed to open its eyes… and let out a long, high-pitched, ear-bursting scream. It actually hurt my ears until I clamped my hands over them, and even then, the sound still blocked out most other noises.

“I liked him better when he was inside,” Fishlegs stated, getting in close to Reign and I to make sure he could be heard.

The rest of the group was drawn our way, irritated and confused about the noise, and all eight of us continued to try and figure out how to get the baby to stop screaming. However, between the amount of time we had to spend covering our ears, and the tiredness from the mission we’d just returned from, no one’s minds were really up for deep thinking. By the time the sun completely disappeared, the baby dragon was still going strong, but the rest of us absolutely weren’t. Currently, I was braced against the clubhouse’s table, and Reign had her head completely slammed down against it.

“Can someone please shut that thing up?” Snotlout shouted.

“Aww, it probably needs its mother. Poor thing, all by itself,” Heather cooed. Strangely, she was the only one of us that didn’t seem to mind what was going on.

“That’s what I was trying to say, because I’m so sincere,” Snotlout lied. “Of course, these fools don’t listen, but I listen.”

Reign groaned in exasperation, slamming her head down on the table again at Snotlout’s ignorance. I, meanwhile, was starting to reach my breaking point with all the screaming, as much as I hated to admit that. Heather had a point, but that didn’t make this any easier to bear.

“I got it!” Everyone looked to Tuff with hope, believing he’d thought of a way to calm the baby dragon down. “Garffiljorg.”

Never mind.

“What?”

“Its name.”

“Who cares what we call it?” his sister groaned. “Not like its listening to us anyway.”

“Chicken cares,” he argued. “I mean, it did come out of her.”

“Tuffnut, she didn’t actually…” His glare cut me off. “Never mind.”

“Okay, we need to do something about this,” Reign declared, finally standing up straight. “We can’t keep this dragon here, for multiple reasons, and some of us haven’t slept in a whole day, so let’s move it to the stables for now, and then we can go from there.”

We debated who was going to be the one to actually carry the dragon for a while, before Heather stepped up and helped the little thing get settled in one of the cages. Despite having been picked up and held, it continued to cry and scream, so at this rate, I really couldn’t figure out what could possibly silence it.

“Oh. How are the dragons gonna sleep with this little guy in here?” Fishlegs clucked, gesturing to the thrashing baby.

“It’s us or them, Fishface,” Snotlout huffed, already storming away. “But, please, feel free to babysit that thing if you want to.” He’d just stomped past Heather, when she spoke up again, remaining empathetic.

“Maybe I should stay with it?” Snotlout immediately zipped back to her side.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. Oh, we’re like two yaks in a stall, you and me.” Beside me, I heard Reign gag.

“Look, if we shut these doors, plug our ears, and sleep under our beds, we just might be able to catch a few winks.” As though it heard me, the baby dragon let out a particularly loud screech. “Yeah, okay, let’s just get out of here before our heads explode.”

We’d all just started to walk away, vaguely listening to Tuffnut explaining that Chicken wanted to stay with the baby, when out of nowhere, the world fell completely silent. It took me a second to notice, but when I did, the relief that hit me was pretty intense.

“Oh, he stopped cry—He stopped crying!” I heard the group’s collective sigh behind me.

“That’s because Chicken sang to him,” Tuff explained. “Didn’t you hear that? Oh, the pipes on that Chicken.” That probably would’ve sounded a lot weirder if I hadn’t been so tired.

Chicken clucked at our baby dragon again, moving a little closer to him. At first, the dragon looked like it might actually settle down and sleep, when it suddenly reeled its head back and shot out an orange substance, encasing Chicken and trapping her as prey. Tuffnut screamed and snatched her up before the baby dragon could eat her, thankfully.

I recognized that substance.

“Uh, does this look familiar to anyone but me?” Tuff inquired, his voice still shaking from the adrenaline from his rescue. “Impenetrable amber cocoon, vicious, hungry dragon, terrified Vikings?”

“It’s a baby Deathsong, Tuffnut,” Fishlegs quivered. “Believe me, we know.”

“Oh, that’s just perfect.”

With Chicken now unable to comfort the baby Deathsong, it began to cry and scream again. Sleep definitely wouldn’t come tonight, especially now that we had to worry about trying to break through this amber. I could remember that heat worked last time, but creating an explosion like I had wasn’t exactly a good solution with a tiny chicken. We’d have to find some other way around this.

Most of the group left to try and get some semblance of rest, while Reign and I got to work on attempting to carve Chicken out of her confines, with Tuffnut sobbing in the corner. Even with the baby Deathsong in the stables, the cries were still extremely clear, causing Reign to lay her head against the table again.

“I’m starting to re-think some future decisions,” she groaned. My hand halted its movements, devastated by the words that had just escaped her. Slowly, I lowered the knife and set a hand on her back, putting my head on the wood so I could meet eyes with her.

“What?” She shook her head, her facial expression shifting rapidly.

“I don’t know! I’m just so exhausted; I don’t know what I’m saying.” Eventually, she relaxed, ever-so-slightly. “There’s no way a human baby could get this loud, right?” I laughed, moving my hand up to her hair and shifting some of it around.

“Not as far as I’m aware. But, we’re also not a species that communicates through screaming sounds.”

“Now, wait a minute, that’s not always true.” The two of us chuckled at her joke, which seemed to bring a bit of life back into the two of us. I helped her sit upright, then returned to cutting through the amber, trying my best to block out Tuffnut’s lamenting.

“Tuffnut, could you please help me out?” Though Reign’s guidance was certainly helping, I was worried about accidentally nicking Chicken with how much she was squirming.

“And do what?” he sobbed.

“Calm your chicken! It’s not doing any of us any good to have the entire Edge freaking out,” Reign sighed.

Tuff crouched down in front of his pet, placing one hand on the cocoon she’d been trapped in and trying to keep his facial expression calm.

“I’m here, Chicken.” Her frantic head movements slowed a bit, making it a little easier for me to keep carving through the hardened amber. “Don’t worry. Everything is gonna turn out…” Tuff’s words suddenly dropped off into wailing. I can’t lie to a chicken.”

“You know, that’d go so much easier if you had some Monstrous Nightmare gel.” Reign and I snapped our gazes over to Snotlout, unsure as to when exactly he’d gotten here. Based on his cocky confidence, I could tell he’d managed to sleep. “Plus, you could get yourself some rotisserie chicken while you’re at it. That sounds good.”

I just rolled my eyes, growing more frustrated when Tuffnut lept out at Snotlout, tackling him to the ground and landing a couple blows before forcing both of them back up again.

“You apologize to her right now!” Tuff growled. “You hear me?”

“No!”

“Nobody’s rotissering Chicken. Nobody! So, you keep that Monstrous Nightmare gel away from her!”

I’d just raised the knife in my hand to start carving again, when an idea popped into my head. I’d have to be even more cautious than I already was, and there’s absolutely no way Tuffnut would agree to it, but it might be the only way to get Chicken out of her trap quickly.

“Actually, Tuff, Snotlout may be onto something.” I crossed the room, over to Hookfang, and wiped some of the gel off his scales, taking care not to lose any as I transferred it to the blade.

“Oh, sure, what’s next, roasted Toothless?”

“Tuffnut, cut it out,” Reign snapped, shutting down his dramatics. I briefly flashed her a thankful smile, then turned back to this little project.

“Just stay with me here,” I implored. “Remember when we were at Melody Island?” I held the coated blade up to Barf’s head, and the couple sparks he let out ignited the Monstrous Nightmare gel, enveloping the blade in flames.

“Don’t do it, Hiccup!” I flinched, holding the blade as far away from our bodies as possible. “You’ll singe her little feathers. And that’s all she has in the whole wide world. Except me, of course. Feathers and me.”

Taking extra care not to get too close to Chicken, I brought the blade down on the hard substance and started to saw through. With the added heat, the knife slid right through, melting the orange amber the instant the flames made contact.

“I’m just doing enough to get it started,” I explained calmly. “I won’t do deep enough to get remotely close to Chicken. See?” Once I’d made a definitive crevice in the cocoon, I motioned for Toothless. He brought one claw up to the amber, and with a little swipe, managed to shatter the entire thing. Chicken appeared to faint from the fear, but she’d live.

“Chicken is free!” I cried out in surprise as Tuffnut shoved me out of the way, only saved from hitting the ground by Reign’s quick reflexes. “Chicken is free!”

The distant screeching of the baby Deathsong suddenly became extremely loud, and when I looked over toward one of the clubhouse’s entrances, I saw Fishlegs, Astrid, and Heather, who was holding the loud dragon in her arms. Most of us had gotten past the point of needing to cover our ears around him, but it was no less piercing after a day.

“We need to remove Garffiljorg from this island, immediately!” Tuffnut demanded.

“Okay, Tuff, don’t you think you’re overreacting?” I asked as Reign pushed the two of us back up to stand.

“Nonsense!” Right when Reign probably thought she was going to get a break, Tuffnut threw Chicken over his head, and she lunged forward to catch the animal.

“It is getting difficult to handle this guy, Hiccup. You’ve gotta admit.” If Astrid was throwing in the towel, things really must’ve been bad.

“She’s right, Hiccup,” Fishlegs supported. “I mean, he just went after Chicken. How long before he goes after us?”

“He’s gots to go.” Snotlout pointed aggressively towards the baby Deathsong, causing Heather’s face to further crumple. “Back to Melody Island with you.” When he started to charge for the dragon, Reign stepped in between him and her sister.

“Snotlout, did you forget how the Deathsong tried to eat all of us and our Dragons?” Clearly, she was trying to scare him into halting his tirade.

“Well, I had, until you brought it up. Thank you for that.” She shrugged and offered him a smug smirk.

“Oh, no, no, it’s too dangerous to go back,” Astrid discouraged.

“And we don’t even know if a baby dragon can bond with a dragon that’s not its parent,” Fishlegs added. We didn’t know how to raise a baby Deathsong, not to mention we weren’t equipped to block out the noise, but there had to be something.

“You guys, he’s too young to know right from wrong,” Heather argued, her voice breaking slightly. “He’s just following his instincts. I know what it’s like to be all alone in the world. We can’t just shun him.”

I watched as Reign’s face faded into sympathy, her eyes falling over her sister for quite a while before she crossed the room. Bearing the brunt of the noise, she placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder and pulled her a little closer, reminding Heather she wasn’t alone anymore.

“Heather’s right. We have trained everything from a Night Fury to a Terrible Terror. We can certainly train him not to eat us. Right?”

Her speech managed to get Fishlegs, Astrid, and myself onto her side, but the twins and Snotlout still weren’t convinced. I understood Tuff’s reason, and by association, Ruff, but Snotlout just seemed to be protesting for the sake of being stubborn.

“And what about that?” Snotlout asked, referring to the loud screeching. “Does anyone else, not named Reign, have an idea before I take a running leap off the top of the Edge?”

“Nobody say a word,” Astrid joked, causing Heather to laugh a little.

“Funny, Astrid,” he deadpanned. “By the way, I’m over you, in case you haven’t heard. And I’m just being honest with you, because I’m nothing if not honest. Did you hear that, Heather?”

“Ah, the overwhelming maturity,” Reign groaned.

Everyone fell silent when we realized Heather was humming some sort of tune, just loud enough for Garff to hear. She’d begun to rock back and forth gently, as though comforting a human baby. Almost instantly, the baby dragon started to calm, and the screeches turned to quiet coos as Heather began to sing.

_“The sky is dark and the hills are white as the Storm King speeds from the north tonight. And this is the song the Storm King sings, as over the world, his cloak he flings. ‘Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep.’ He rustles his wings and gruffly sings. ‘Sleep, little one, sleep.’”_

Heather had done it! Garff had not only stopped crying, but he’d fallen asleep altogether. Reign’s face warmed with familiarity, clearly recognizing the lullaby Heather had just performed.

“That was… That was just beautiful, Heather.” Fishlegs wiped a single tear rolling down his cheek.

“Ugh! Thank Thor something worked,” Astrid groaned.

“Well, would you look at that. Garff wasn’t the only one that it worked on.” I followed Fishlegs’ gaze to see the twins and Barf and Belch had completely knocked out.

“It makes perfect sense. The Deathsong sings to its prey to draw them in. That must be the primary way it communicates,” I theorized.

“And it might help us train it,” Heather added.

“Interesting.” Reign’s smile as she turned to her sister stopped me from saying anything more.

“Mom and Dad used to sing that to us,” she whispered, her voice filled with lilts of nostalgia. “I remember that.” Heather turned to her, appearing a little shocked. “There was this one time… Dagur wouldn’t stop jumping around and swinging this wooden sword he had—which seems like a pretty terrible gift if he was unstable from the start—and I was upset about… something, and you were just crying. And then, Dad came in, and he and Mom managed to get us all to settle down by singing that lullaby.” The two of them took in deep breaths, clearly overwhelmed by the memory. “I’m surprised to remembered it, considering you had to have been a baby.”

The moment was filled with sweet sentimentality… until Snotlout just _had_ to interject himself into it.

“Yak dung,” he fake-coughed. Unfortunately, the force he used to get that out startled Garff, and when his eyes shot wide open, the screaming resumed.

“Well, you better keep singing, then.” No way was Heather about to do all that work for us. It would be horribly embarrassing, but… as many people as possible had to chip in.

“You mean, ‘we,’” I corrected.

“I do?”

“Oh, yes, you do,” Heather smirked. It was pretty clear she loved the idea of forcing Snotlout to help out with singing to a baby dragon.

“Oh, yes, of course, I do.”

Reign, on the other hand, was far more persistent on her point. She glared at me, her hands planting firmly on her hips.

“This is _so_ not happening,” she scoffed. I’d never seen her act so much like Snotlout, and quite frankly, it was pretty frustrating.

“Reign, come on,” I sighed. “The rest of us are willing to do it. It’s just for a little bit.”

“Hiccup, I don’t sing. Absolutely not.”

“Okay, first of all, you don’t actually have to sing. You just… have to make sounds.” The moment I said it, I knew it didn’t sound right, which was furthered by how Reign snickered. “You know what I mean. And, you don’t have to actually be good at singing.”

“Hiccup, I’m not doing it.”

I would’ve continued to argue with her, had I not noticed the way her hand subconsciously went up into her hair and started to pull on and scratch at it. I wasn’t entirely sure she was aware she did this, but when she did, it was a sign she was distressed. Something about having to do this was genuinely upsetting her, not because she was being stubborn, but because of some other factor that scared her.

And so, I caved. Snotlout protested loudly, demanding to know why Reign was the exception, but I just let it go and took the next shift with Garff.

Unfortunately, all of our efforts weren’t as successful as Heather’s. Maybe it’s because she’d bonded with him more than the rest of us had, or maybe it’s because he could tell we were all slightly frantic, but all of us ended up getting shot with amber. Most of the balls were small enough that they could just be cracked by hitting them with enough force, but others, like the one Garff conveniently shot around my metal foot, would require heat. With Toothless’ aid, I hobbled back into my hut, where I found Reign working on some sketches for the Dragon Eye notes. She took one glance up at me, and snickered, pressing her fist over her lips to try and hide it.

“Really?” She cleared her throat, drawing the smirk away from her lips. 

“Sorry, babe.”

While I had Toothless help me into a chair, Reign went over and lit the fireplace, sliding some Monstrous Nightmare gel onto one of our knives before sticking it into the fire. She remained completely unflinching when she made her way over to me and ran it through the casing. Once she’d finished with that, she used the blunt end of the knife to crack it open, then dunked it into a bucket of water, snuffing out the flame.

“There. Now you can walk again.”

I stood from my chair and kissed her briefly, then ran upstairs to grab my book of different inventions I’d planned or made over the years, and set it down on the table, leafing through until I found a blank page. For a while, I sat there, trying to picture how the full mechanism of this thing would work, then began to sketch slowly, erasing frequently. Eventually, Reign became curious, and leaned over my shoulder, some of her fluffy hair brushing against my cheek.

“What’s this?” Carefully, I shifted myself to sit diagonally, then wrapped my arms around her waist, easing her down to sit on my lap. Her eyes scanned over the drawing, analyzing it carefully.

“A prototype for something that’ll hopefully help us when it comes to all that Deathsong amber.” She leaned forward a little, focusing on some specific detail, before she pointed to it.

“The channel needs to be a little smaller. Otherwise, the gel’s going to come spilling out the sides.” Reign snatched the charcoal from my hand and corrected the error, smiling proudly at her accomplishment. “And if you put in a spring-loaded piece of metal here… then when you hit the button, it’ll create friction and the heat will ignite the gel.”

“I more expected you to talk about how dangerous this is,” I joked. She twisted her upper body a bit so she was looking at me, and rested a hand on my cheek.

“Even if most of your inventions have made me panic on some caliber… I’m always so blown away by the things you can come up with. These creations of yours, they’re impressive.”

That sent a new surge of determination through me. Working together, the two of us finished the sketch and designs, then went to gather up the necessary materials from the others’ dragons. Forcing the sword was the easy part, but creating the right amount of friction with the simple push of a button prover to be far more difficult. We thought we’d finally figured it out, but when I poured more gel down the channel and hit the trigger, nothing changed.

“Hmm. Well, that was supposed to work.”

“Hiccup!” Reign and I whipped around to see Astrid at our front door, both her and Stormfly absolutely covered in Deathsong amber. “This is officially out of hand! We cannot go on like this!”

Just outside, we could see the rest of the group, all covered in more amber. They’d just gotten freed from the first set and already, they were covered in the stuff again. This definitely wasn’t looking good for the argument of keeping Garff on the Edge.

“But we can’t abandon him,” Heather insisted, her tone desperate. “We just can’t! I’d never forgive myself!”

Heather was right—we wouldn’t abandon Garff. But, it was pretty clear that we wouldn’t be able to train him ourselves without putting us and our dragons in danger. We only had one option left, and although it was risky, we still would have to go through with it.

“We won’t abandon him,” I assured Heather. “We’ll do what we should’ve done to begin with. We’ll take him to be with his own kind.” Unconsciously, I hit the button on the side of the sword Reign and I had been working on, and for whatever reason, the blade actually ignited this time. On the bright side, it worked right when we needed it to.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Astrid’s tone was filled with dread.

“Yes, we’re going to Melody Island to find that Deathsong.”

The usual protests came throughout the night, and sleep didn’t come easy with the screams of Garff, but we managed to get everyone up and packing to go to Melody Island by the time the sun started to come up. Of course, that didn’t mean everyone was just going to go easy.

“Hey, genius, have you thought of the fact that the Deathsong mind-melts our dragons?” I smirked at Snotlout as I removed the small balls of moss from my bag.

“Actually, I have.”

“Good, good, good, good, good, good. So, do you have a plan for that, or are we just gonna wing it?”

“Pun intended,” Tuffnut laughed, while Reign and I started to hand out the little tools. “Get it? You said wing it, and dragons have—“

“We get it, Tuff,” Astrid interjected.

“We’re gonna handle that, Snotlout, by using these.” Fishlegs looked like he was about to explode with excitement once I got to him.

“Moss ear plugs! Awesome!”

“Right? Reign came up with them last night.” Her eyes flicked down for a second when I winked at her.

“Kind of ironic, considering I have the one dragon that doesn’t need them,” she shrugged.

“We custom-made them for each dragon to keep out the Deathsong’s call.” Snotlout still remained completely resistant to this mission, however.

“Great. As if this guy needs another reason not to listen,” he scoffed, nodding his head toward Hookfang, who responded by snorting right in his Rider’s face.

“You didn’t happen to make any for us, did you?” Snotlout burst out into boisterous, obnoxious, sarcastic laughter, glaring at Astrid. I rolled my eyes and made my way back to Toothless, finishing securing his saddle so that we could get Garff taken care of.

“Very funny, Astrid. You should take that comedy routine on the road.” Astrid just climbed up onto Stormfly, chuckling to herself.

“Maybe I will.”

Garff was impressively silent on the flight to Melody Island. Fishlegs and Heather had been tending to him before we all headed out, and now he laid in Heather’s arms, soundly sleeping. The silence was most certainly welcome, especially considering the flight was already quite daunting.

“Fishlegs, how did you swing that?” I asked, amazed.

“Dragon nip!” He held the grass up, flashing it around to show his accomplishment. “I wasn’t entirely sure it would work on this particular species. It only took a couple of tries to get close enough to knock the little guy out.” Meatlug growled at him, irritated that the efforts had amounted to her getting amber stuck on her. “Sorry, girl.”

“Just make sure he’s awake when we get there,” I reminded him. “We need him alert and focused.”

I kept my mind focused on Garff and Melody Island, but Astrid had other ideas, flying up closer to the front of the group so all of us could hear her clearly.

“How do you get a one-armed Jorgenson out of a tree?” She paused for a bit, building up the comedic suspense. “You wave to him.”

Maybe it was a bit below me, but I couldn’t help but laugh; in fact, the entire group was laughing, and although Snotlout was the target, he still muttered about how he realized it was funny.

“How do you sink a Jorgenson battleship? You put it in the water.” Clearly, she’d been thinking about these for a majority of the flight.

“Do another one!” Fishlegs encouraged. “Come on, more, do one more.”

“That’s right, laugh, all of you,” Snotlout snapped. “But don’t come running to me when you’re out of Monstrous Nightmare gel.” I rolled my eyes, ready to move on from Snotlout’s bitterness. Besides, we were finally closing in on Melody Island.

“All right, gang, the Deathsong strike is very precise,” Reign called out. “Streamlined. So, we need to spread out. That way, it can only go after one of us at a time.”

Reign and I took to checking the cave systems, while the others searched outside. Hopefully, if any one of us ran into the Deathsong, we’d be able to hear it, or the Riders would be able to escape in time. In the meantime, the two of us searched each network carefully, looking for any signs the Deathsong had been here recently, but each time we emerged from one, neither of us had anything but some old, shedded dragon scales.

“It’s not in there,” I announced when we re-joined some of the group. “That’s good news for Garff.”

“And bad news for us,” Snotlout gulped.

“All right, let’s find this guy.” Reign dismissed Snotlout’s worry pretty quickly, very clearly focused on the mission.

We hadn’t been searching from the air for long, when the distant, terror-inducing song started to float up from the island, though it remained distant. I glanced down at Toothless and around at the other dragons, but thankfully, none of them appeared to be reacting to the Deathsong. They all just kept flying wherever we steered them, blissfully unaware that anything out of the ordinary was going on.

“The ear plugs are working, Hiccup,” Fishlegs confirmed.

“Great. Now, let’s get in closer. Everyone on high alert.”

An ominous fog came rolling in as we swooped down through a pathway of rocks. Littering the grass were thousands of balls of Deathsong amber, all filled with bones and skulls, serving as a reminder of what awaited us if something went wrong. The possibility of that remained relatively small… until I heard Garff begin to fuss and stir behind me.

“Uh, Hiccup?” Heather’s voice shook.

“Yeah, I got it.”

I decided to halt the group’s searching for a bit, allowing Heather and Fishlegs to focus on trying to calm Garff. But, evidently, his cries were already too loud, and I began to panic when orange streams of liquid struck their backs, knocking them and their dragons to the ground and encasing them in amber. We were out of time, and completely unprepared. The Deathsong had its wings spread out at full span, screaming at all of us. We’d been spotted.

“Remember, if we don’t bunch up, it can’t—“

The advice was useless. The Deathsong fired quickly, knocking down everyone but Toothless and I in half a second. Surely, it would’ve recognized us, and realized the prey it wanted so badly had come back. This was its opportunity to finally get what it wanted. I started circling just above the Deathsong’s reach on Toothless, trying to find some sort of in, when out of nowhere, Garff went divebombing into the middle of the conflict—since he hadn’t really learned to use his wings yet, it was all a bit unsteady—and stared up at the Deathsong, screaming in a rhythmic pattern similar to the lullaby Heather had sung to him so many times.

“Never thought I’d be happy to hear that,” Snotlout sighed.

Curious, the Deathsong lumbered closer to Garff, sniffing and leering down at him before spitting a tiny bit of amber at his feet. I hadn’t read anything about something like this before, but maybe it was some sort of bonding technique between parents and children—which would serve well for the rest of us.

“Well, at least they’re not shooting it at us,” I shrugged.

The Deathsong let out a scream in a specific sequence, imitating some sort of song, then it stared at Garff, clearly waiting for him to sing back. Garff scratched behind his ear with one of his legs, completely ignoring the gesture the first time around. It almost looked like the Deathsong was growing frustrated when it roared in the same pattern again. This time, Garff caught on, but he roared in his own pattern we’d taught him. The third time around, I landed Toothless and climbed off his back, hopeful they’d maybe be distracted long enough for me to cut everyone out.

“Hey, I think they’re bonding.”

I was so wrong.

The last time Garff responded, the Deathsong narrowed its gaze at him, then in one swipe, it flicked its tail out, striking Garff and knocking him against a rock.

“Garff!”

“That can’t be good.”

“Hiccup!”

Reign tried to give me a warning, but I moved too slowly. I had just managed to remove the fire sword from Toothless’ saddle, when the Deathsong spit amber toward us, freezing me with my arms raised. The force of the blast knocked the weapon from my hands, which wasn’t exactly helpful. This was the first time I’d had my entire body trapped in the substance, and it was about as uncomfortable as I had expected.

“I knew this was going to go bad,” Snotlout whined, thrashing his head in an attempt to somehow break loose. “Why does no one listen to me?”

“Now’s not the time, Snotlout!” Reign shouted.

Upon hearing the noise, the Deathsong whipped around and started to move toward Reign, leaning down and eyeing her for far too long before it let out that screaming sequence again. She pulled her head back as far as it would go, but the dragon continued its pursuit, as though it thought Reign was one of its children. It wasn’t until Fishlegs started humming complete nonsense that the Deathsong drew its gaze away from her, allowing me to breathe again. Garff had managed to get back onto his feet again, and upon hearing the song Fishlegs was humming, he repeated it.

“Fishface! What are you doing?” Snotlout hissed.

“I’m sorry,” he whimpered. “I hum when I’m nervous.

“Hum later!” Snotlout shot back. “I heard they love humming in Valhal—“

“Hey, that’s my favorite lullaby, and I was the one who taught it to Garff.”

That was it! Fishlegs had just unintentionally given us the answer to our problem.

“That might be the problem,” I spoke up. “He’s singing our songs, the ones we sang to him, and the Deathsong doesn’t like them.”

“You know, everyone’s a critic.” Snotlout shrugged his shoulders.

“So, what do we do?” Astrid asked as the Deathsong started to screech in her face.

“Uh, keep singing. Maybe we can find a song it likes.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ll need a little time to prepare.” The first time Tuffnut speaks up since we left, and _that’s_ what he had to offer us? “This golden throat is a very delicate instrument.”

Everyone flew into panic mode when the Deathsong leaned down and plucked Tuffnut from the cocoon he’d been stuck to, holding him in its mouth and shaking him around violently. Everyone, except for Reign, of course, started to just sing whatever words came to their heads, occasionally shouting at each other about rhyming, or whatever. But, even after Garff started to sing the different melodies, the Deathsong wasn’t impressed.

“Guys, that’s not going to work,” Reign piped up out of nowhere. “Listen.” The Deathsong screamed its song again. “It’s roaring in a very specific pattern. If Garff can’t mimic that, I don’t think the Deathsong’s going to accept him.”

That would’ve been the perfect plan… if anyone remembered how the song went.

“Seriously?” Reign groaned when everyone shrugged their shoulders. “Fine.”

Reign cleared her throat, then after beckoning Garff over, she started to sing the exact notes the Deathsong kept letting out, attempting to coax Garff into repeating them. She kept her head down, appearing to block the rest of us out in embarrassment, but… she actually sounded pretty good. I hadn’t realized she could sing before, but that’s probably because she absolutely refused to.

The longer Reign had to sing, the more Garff appeared to pick up on the pattern she was imitating. It came slowly, with a few incorrect notes here and there, but after about the sixth or seventh try, he got every single one. With the pattern finally learned, Reign urged Garff away. He flew up into the face of the Deathsong, repeating its pattern to show what it had learned. That completely changed the Deathsong’s attitude, and it abandoned its interest in us altogether, and the two of them flew away.

“I don’t believe it,” I gasped, still attempting to grapple with the fact we weren’t in any more danger. “Garff saved us.”

“Yep, we saved him, and he saved us.” Heather wore a proud smile as she watched the two of them disappear completely.

“I just had a thought,” Tuffnut gasped, laid down completely flat on the ground. “Now that they’re both on the same team, what’s stopping them both from eating us?”

Tuffnut made a good point, which was why we needed to get out of there. Thankfully, Toothless was still able to move his tail, so he scooped up the fire sword and passed it into my one free arm. I was able to ignite it and shatter our amber cocoon in no time flat, which meant the rest of us would be able to escape with ease.

“Hiccup, that’s brilliant!” Fishlegs praised. “If you find the weak spot in the cocoon, the rest will crack and fall apart.”

“Exactly. Now, let’s get out of here before they get their appetites back.”

Everyone else was broken free, and although I knew we had to rush off the island, I couldn’t resist what poked at the back of my mind. Right before she slid up onto Shriek, I approached Reign and turned her to face me, smirking at her. 

“I thought you said you couldn’t sing,” I teased. Her eyes rolled back into her head as her cheeks flared.

“I said I _don’t_. Never said I can’t. But I meant what I said before; I only did that because we were going to get killed if I didn’t. Otherwise, I’d like to pretend this never happened, thank you very much.” Trying to reassure her, I moved a little closer to her.

“That’s a shame,” I sighed. “I thought you sounded beautiful.” For a moment, she smiled at me, but it quickly dropped away, and she turned to get up on her dragon.

“Nice try, Haddock. Never again.” Still, she winked at me before she and Shriek took off after the others.

I removed the sword from Toothless’ saddle and ignited it again, watching as the fire consumed the blade. I’d definitely need to make some modifications, but this weapon could actually prove to be extremely useful in the future.

“You know, if that were, like, twice the size, it would make a really cool sword.” Reign read my mind.

“Exactly. I’m gonna call this ‘Inferno.’ I mean, look at it.”

“Nah,” Tuffnut countered. “Doesn’t have the right _je ne sais quoi_.”

“ _Je ne sais quoi_? How did you…” I shook my head, choosing to move on. “All right. I’ll come up with something different. Of course, I will have to make some adjustments. Lengthen the shaft, add another canister for more Monstrous Nightmare gel, make the gas canister airtight.” The more I thought about the modifications, the more excited I got. “Oh, I am getting to work on this thing right away.”

Behind me, I heard Reign joke, “And that’s the last we’ll see of Hiccup this week.”


	37. Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Reign)

I scanned the horizon in front of me meticulously, trying to spot any sort of irregularity or ship floating along the water. Nothing was overtly obvious, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t missed any sort of detail while dipping up and down through the cloud cover. Deciding that landing for a bit might help, I steered Shriek down onto a sea stack below us, removing one of Hiccup’s spyglasses that he’d lent me from my belt. Heather landed beside me just a moment later, but her shrug indicated she hadn’t found our intended target, either.

Thankfully, when I looked through the spyglass, I could see three ships trying to disappear over the horizon. Bingo.

“What are we landing for?” I didn’t even bother to look back at Snotlout. “They’re pulling away. Hookfang, come on!”

“No,” I snapped. “There’s too many and they’re sailing in tight formation.” Snotlout mumbled something under his breath, just quiet enough that I couldn’t catch it. Something told me it was derogatory, though.

“Reign’s right.” I flashed a brief smile at Fishlegs, thanking him for backing me up. “We’ll never be able to approach that convoy without being spotted first.”

“We need a distraction,” Astrid asserted.

I set the spyglass down, trying to think of a way we could distract the convoy long enough so that some of us could sneak onto the ships and free the dragons, when Hiccup slid off Toothless and started digging through one of his dragon’s saddle bags.

“Leave that to us.” I did my best to bite back my sigh, knowing that whatever he had planned wasn’t the safest option. Sure enough, he held up a new tail fin for Toothless, which could only mean they were about to do something incredibly risky.

“Hiccup, this is no time to play dress-up!” Snotlout shouted, not quite understanding what Hiccup was going for.

“And how can you even think of wearing yellow after Snoggletog?” Tuffnut challenged, treating the mild superstition like it was an abominable crime. “That, my friend, is a fashion _faux pas_.”

“How gauche!”

“Guys, let’s just hear him out,” I groaned, slapping my forehead out of disappointment.

“This one is lighter and stiffer,” Hiccup explained as he attached the new fin to Toothless. “It’s made of a thin sheet of Gronckle Iron. It’s not great for long-distance flying, but…”

“The added stability will allow you to fly along the water’s surface without using and wing-flap,” Fishlegs finished. “It’s ingenious.”

“Exactly, Fishlegs. We’re gonna glide in right under their sight line. Watch for my signal!”

Just before Hiccup and Toothless took off, I patted Shriek to move closer to the two of them, and reached over to take his hand. He smiled at me and squeezed it back, offering he silent assurance that he would be fine. Still, after he took off and headed straight for the ships, I felt my chest tighten with worry.

“He’ll be fine, Reign.” I tried my best to smile at my sister as she and Windshear stepped up to my side. “He’s Hiccup.”

“Yeah, I know, I just…” I glanced down at my hands a moment, watching them fidget. “I don’t know why I’ve been so worried about him lately. He’s pretty much given me no reason to.”

“It’s just because you love him.”

She was right. But, I’d loved him for a long time. Why was it getting so intense now? It couldn’t have been because of Viggo, could it? After all, he’d been a looming threat for weeks upon weeks, meanwhile this fear had just started recently.

Underneath the layers, there was an inkling of what was really going on: that thing I said to Fishlegs all the way back on that brief vacation. It started to bite at me more and more, and while I wanted to jump on the opportunity, the perfect moment had yet to come again. Part of me wondered if I’d missed the window; if that moment, floating in the water, had been the only chance, and now, it was no longer meant to be.

I wasn’t given more time to dwell on it, which was probably for the best. In front of me, I saw stacks of smoke rise up from the decks of two of the ships, meaning Hiccup and Toothless had already started to dole out some damage. I called back to the rest of the group, letting them know we were needed, then the seven of us swooped in on our dragons, immediately blasting at Hunters and ships. Heather and I stuck together, slicing down sails and disposing of catapults and launchers, until they had run out of weapons. Once we knew we were safe, I flew to where Hiccup and Toothless were, jumping off Shriek and standing beside the former, my sword held out in their direction. The crew surrendered almost instantly, and with that, we felt confident enough to start freeing the dragons.

“We’ll be taking your cargo now,” Hiccup announced. For a moment, I felt like a pirate pillaging without remorse. Only, in this case, the stealing was more than warranted, and actually did good.

Hiccup and I jumped down from our platform and booked it straight for the cells below deck, practically sliding down the ladder.

“All right. Let’s free these dragons so we can help with the other ships.”

Our plan had been so set in stone, but when we finally reached the cages meant to hold dragons, Hiccup and I stopped in our tracks, caught completely off-guard. The prisons on either side of us were dead silent, devoid of dragons, or any living creature in general. Instead, the two of us were staring at slabs of white marble, stacked against the doors and wall.

“Uh, Hiccup… where are all the dragons?”

We’d been fed false information. Yet another reason not to trust Trader Johann…

“Well…” He draped an arm around my waist, effectively speechless for a moment. “Not here, clearly. I mean, we could try and get this marble out of here…”

“That’s not going to work,” I countered. “Our dragons can’t carry all that weight, and neither can we; not to mention, it’s just a bunch of stone slabs. Even if they’re using it for reinforcements, there’s no way they can be that strong. I’d just let this one go.” Despite the confusion and disappointment of the moment, I sighed contently when he rested his face against my cheek.

“You’re right. I’m willing to bet the other ships are the same way.” Hiccup’s hand slid to mine, tugging me toward the exit. “Let’s see if we can get any information out of these Hunters.” I smirked as the two of us headed out.

“Now you’re speaking my language.”

Astrid and Heather were waiting for the two of us when we emerged, wearing disappointed expressions with frustrated posture. Clearly, Hiccup’s theory about the complete cargo load of this convoy had been correct.

“Guys, these ships don’t have any dragons on them,” Astrid huffed. “Just marble blocks.”

“Why would they fight so hard to protect a bunch of rocks?” my sister thought aloud.

We wouldn’t get the chance to ask. The Hunters were tied up, and I was preparing myself for the interrogation, when the color drained from Snotlout’s face, and I could faintly hear what sounded like squawking and screeching in the distance.

“What is that?” Hiccup and I both went in to grab our spyglasses, but I managed to get my hands on mine first.

“Whatever it is, it’s moving fast.”

When I held the glass up to my eye and stared out at the horizon, I felt exasperation push down on my shoulders. The large cloud had revealed itself to be a pack of fleeing dragons, bigger than any one we’d dealt with before. It wasn’t really a matter of wrangling them, but more figuring out what exactly was causing them to panic and flee wherever they had been.

“Bad news?” Hiccup inquired.

“It’s not great.” And suddenly, it was far too close. Instinctually, I grabbed onto his shoulder and pushed him down, preventing the two of us from getting hit just before a Nadder swooped a little too close.

“Dragon stampede!” Snotlout screamed. “Take cover!” Hiccup and I, on the other hand, were already jumping onto our dragons.

“No. We need to get in the air.”

Hiccup swiftly changed out Toothless’ new tail for the traditional one, and once it was secured, the two of us led the charge straight through the herd of dragons. Though it felt dicey and constricting dead in the middle of the storm, all of us managed to avoid getting hit, and breaking through out the other end felt that much better.

“Hiccup, where are we headed?” Fishlegs asked once he’d made it back through.

“Look, we’re gonna follow this stampede to its source,” he explained calmly. “These dragons, they’re fleeing for a reason.”

A few stragglers momentarily got in our way, but they appeared to be the last ones. The direction they were flying lined up with an island of stone not too far in front of us, and once all of us got a little closer, I could hear loud, vibrating booms and the shouts of men coming from it. That had to be our source.

“There.” I pointed toward the island, for those who had yet to catch on. “Do you hear that? We need to take a closer look.”

Out of nowhere, more dragons came zooming off the island dodging back and forth and moving erratically. It was difficult to predict their patterns, and although most of us made it through the little group unscathed, the twins weren’t so lucky. A Zippleback flew upwards a little too close to Barf and Belch, confusing them just long enough that a Nadder had the opportunity to slam into their dragon’s stomach, sending the three of them divebombing straight for the island.

“Ruff! Tuff!” Heather cried.

“I regret nothing!” I heard Tuffnut shout.

“I regret everything!” Of course his sister’s statement completely contradicted his own.

All of us made a break for the island, landing in front of the forest we’d seen them tumble into. Everyone called out for them, hoping they were conscious enough to at least hear our voices, and thankfully, Tuff emerged from behind a tree just in front of us. He swayed back and forth, one hand clutched against his head, but at least he could walk for the time being.

“It’s all good in the archipela-hood.” After one more step, Tuff fell down against the dirt, eyes slammed shut. Meanwhile, Ruff emerged from the woods with Barf and Belch, holding his right wing in her hands. The bone at the top had been completely bent, and I could see his faces wincing in pain.

“But it doesn’t look like Barf and Belch are going anywhere for a while,” Ruff declared, dropping her dragon’s wing to demonstrate.

“Perfect. Great plan, you two,” Snotlout deadpanned, his arms slamming against his sides. Hiccup and I were focused on something completely different, however. Our eyes were dead-set on a group of Hunter ships parked at what looked like a dock they’d built themselves.

“Hiccup, these ships are just like the ones from the convoy,” I observed.

We didn’t have much longer to ponder what they were doing here. Gruff voices started getting closer from behind us, forcing those of us out in the open to run for the forest, taking cover behind trees. I felt one of Hiccup’s hands slide into my own as the two of us peered out from behind our tree. Three men made their way past, dragging along a cart of those white marble slabs. Now was our chance to strike.

“Toothless, Shriek, come on,” I whispered, motioning for our dragons to follow. Hiccup and I hung back a bit, and once Toothless and Shriek cut off the Hunters, Hiccup and I moved in, seizing them and tying them together with rope. They tried their best to struggle and break free, but I knew how to tie an unbreakable knot. For the moment, I’d taken to pacing around them, circling like a Sea Shocker around its prey.

“Do your worst,” the leader of this group challenged. “I’ve stared down the mouth of a Whispering Death. You don’t scare me.”

Well, that was a mistake.

Smirking, I stepped forward, getting right up in the leader’s face. He remained strong for the moment, but I was determined to break him.

“Hm,” I chuckled. “That’s cute. You think glancing at the Whispering Death makes you tough?” I backed up a bit, removing my sword from its sheath and bouncing the blade in my right hand. “I have stared straight into the beady, red eyes of a Screaming Death and didn’t flinch; I can make a Skrill bend to my every whim and will, bringing lightning down on the heads of whomever I please; I’m the sister of Dagur the Deranged, for crying out loud. I have made men far tougher than you spill their guts onto the floor and then some.” I pretended to turn away for a second, then lunged forward slightly, placing my fingers around the Hunter’s throat just enough to scare him. “So, are we going to have a problem here? Or are you going to give me what I want?” When I felt him trembling underneath my hand, I stepped back, crossing my arms.

“Okay, I’ll talk!” he whimpered. Hiccup and I met eyes for a moment, and he offered me a supportive smile. “Two convoys left earlier this morning headed for—“

My grip around the hilt of my sword tightened when Tuffnut stood up behind the Hunter, swinging a stick out of nowhere and striking the leader on the head, knocking him out cold. Everyone glared at Tuff with wide, angry eyes, but he failed to notice.

“I thought that guy would never shut up,” he groaned. “Am I right?”

“Tuff, he was just about to tell us everything!” I cried, gesticulating to the unconscious man.

“He was?” Even after learning that, when the leader picked his head back up again, Tuffnut delivered another blow. “Sorry. It’s a reflex.”

There went Plan A… My head slid into my hand, shaking back and forth.

“Astrid, you, Heather, and Snotlout get out there and see if you can track down that other convoy and find out where it’s headed,” Hiccup dictated. “Meanwhile, the rest of us will scout this island for more answers.”

I walked over to Heather’s side, pushing down all annoyance as I faced her.

“Be safe out there.” I reached out and squeezed her arm.

“You, too. I’ll see you when we find something, sis.” Every time she called me that, it felt like someone wrapped a blanket around my heart. The two of us exchanged a brief hug, then Heather took off after Astrid and Snotlout.

While they went to go hunt down that convoy, Hiccup, Fishlegs, the twins, and I started out on foot. We hadn’t been walking for very long, when all of a sudden, a violent shudder ran through the ground, nearly throwing everyone off their feet. Though that didn’t exactly provide promise that this was going to be easy, we had to keep going and figure out what exactly was going on here. The further toward the center of the island we got, the more intense the vibrations became, to the point where we had to brace ourselves against a rock to keep from slamming our heads on the ground and suffering a head wound.

On the bright side, we were now close enough to get a better look at the source of the ground shaking. Hiccup removed his spyglass from his belt and glanced down toward the giant cavern, then passed the device off to Fishlegs, while I removed my own to see what he had. There were large, wooden towers set up at several points, with Hunters perched on top to supervise operations below. Two large wrecking balls were periodically slammed against the stone walls of the crevice—we’d definitely found the source of the shaking—shaking loose large slabs of stone that more Hunters then pushed up a ramp and onto carts that were wheeled away once they’d been filled.

“This operation is huge,” I gasped.

“That explains the booming.” Fishlegs pointed toward the ridiculously oversized wrecking balls.

“But why would Viggo need all this marble?” Hiccup wondered. No matter what the answer was, we needed to shut this thing down here and now.

“Okay. Ruff, Tuff, you’ll strike from the ground.” I was sort of just coming up with this on the spot, but hopefully, it would work. The twins flashed me a thumbs-up, then ran off on Barf and Belch. “Fishlegs, Hiccup, we’ll hit from the air. Cover me while we take out those wrecking balls. We need to find out what’s going on here, and what Viggo has to do with it.”

Hiccup and I took to the air quickly, our eyes each set on one of the wrecking balls. With the five of us attacking this setup, there was no way they’d be able to get out of here, especially with how heavy their cargo was. The two of us had just gotten into blasting range, when Fishlegs and Meatlug suddenly popped up in front of us, causing Hiccup and I to cry out in alarm and pull back on our dragons so they wouldn’t shoot him.

“No, don’t!” he begged.

“What the—“

“Guys, look closer. Those aren’t wrecking balls. Those are Catastrophic Quakens!”

Horrified, I pulled out my spyglass and looked toward the tools. A Hunter on the ground slammed down a hammer, and once the full sound rang out, the two balls were raised in the air, momentarily unfurling to reveal the dragons Fishlegs and I had discovered what seemed like forever ago on Dark Deep. How could they possibly do that to these dragons? Just when I thought the Hunters couldn’t get any crueler…

“They’re using the Quakens for their demolition work,” Fishlegs gasped.

“Fishlegs, I would love to discuss this, but…”

The Quakens had balled themselves up again, and used the force of the momentum they’d built up to swing down, hitting the wall of the cavern with such impressive force that a shockwave of dust radiated outward, sending our dragons spinning in the air. Hiccup, Fishlegs, and I just barely managed to get a hold on our dragons’ saddles and straighten ourselves out… but there were two people that had absolutely no clue what was going on, and had no warning whatsoever.

“The twins!”

The three of us descended to the ground, sliding off our dragons and immediately beginning our search for the twins and their Zippleback.

“I’m sure they’re okay, bud,” Hiccup assured Toothless after he purred worriedly. “Those two have survived worse.”

“Mostly inflicted by themselves,” I muttered. Out of nowhere, the ground rumbled, and I only managed to save myself from falling by grabbing onto Shriek. Fishlegs, unfortunately, wasn’t as quick with his reflexed, and he nearly slammed onto his back.

Just through the line of trees before us, we could get a glance at the work of the Hunters, without them spotting us. The one with the large mallet approached one of the Quakens, pressing the tool against the dragon’s face. It growled, but otherwise didn’t rebel, and when the Hunter tapped the ground, it relaxed completely.

“It’s the vibrations, Hiccup.” Fishlegs put the pieces together just a bit faster than I could

“Vibrations?” he questioned.

“The Hunters have trained the Quakens to react to the vibrations when the hammer hits the ground. Trapping them, then fighting them, now working them against their will. This is monstrous! I know these dragons. They may seem dangerous and aggressive at first, but they have a softer side.” I stepped closer to Fishlegs, dealing with the swirlings of intense anger and sadness.

“I know. No dragon deserves to be treated like this,” I growled.

“Then how are we gonna free them?” I didn’t quite have that part worked out yet.

“Well…”

“Whatever you’re planning, you can count on me to hit someone with a branch.” I turned and smiled at the twins, relieved they’d come out of that attack unscathed.

“Ruff. Tuff. You’re okay! Wait, is Belch?”

Hiccup’s question was answered just a second later, when the Zippleback came stumbling through the clearing, his two heads in completely opposite directions.

“Oh, he’s fine. We Thorstons are known for our extremely thick craniums.” Tuffnut knocked on the top of his head to emphasize his point.

“Yeah. Warriors used to wear the skulls of our ancestors as helmets.” Ruffnut managed to break a branch over her brother’s head, but after a second of laughing, he fell flat on the ground. I weird, frightened shudder ran through me, then I shook my head, trying to move on from that.

“Okay, there’s a deeply disturbing image I would very much like to forget,” I sighed.

“So, what’s the plan to free these dragons, boss-woman?” I tried my best to hide a stupid, little smile that wanted to make an appearance. I’d never actually heard someone refer to me as the boss before, but… I _really_ liked it.

“Ah, well, there’s not a lot of maneuverability in that quarry. But now that I think about it, I might have something that could get us close enough to cause a distraction for Fishlegs and Meatlug to infiltrate.” It was only a vague semblance of an idea, but at least it was better than nothing.

I turned to face Hiccup, raising my eyebrows at him to signal I’d need his help. This proud, loving smile washed over his face, and I felt my heart flutter. But, I just tried my best to brush it aside for the moment and focus on taking charge.

“You and Fishlegs have dealt with these dragons before. Whatever you need me to do, I’m behind you, one thousand percent.” I couldn’t help myself. I took large strides over to him and kissed his cheek before moving on with marching orders.

“Do you have any other tail fins for Toothless?”

Hiccup’s eyes lit up like Snoggletog lanterns, then he started to dig through the large sack on Toothless’ saddle, presenting all of them out to me. I ran my eyes over the variety of colors, but unfortunately, the coding meant nothing to me. He’d never really explained it to me at all.

“Any for tight turns?” He nodded and removed a bright blue fin. “Perfect. You and Toothless will come with Shriek and I into the quarry. Since she can flatten herself, we shouldn’t have much of an issue maneuvering in the narrow quarters. Ruff. Tuff. Once Hiccup and I get into position, you two come in on Barf and Belch, and just have them create the biggest Wall of Fire you’ve ever made. Once that happens, the Hunters should be sufficiently distracted, and that’s when Fishlegs will swoop in and free the Quakens. Any questions?”

The group shook their heads.

“Excellent. Now, let’s go rescue some dragons.”

Hiccup and I took to the sky, diving straight for the heart of Dragon Hunter territory. We made no attempts to hide from them, given our task in this mission, allowing them to fire off their dragon root arrows. Shriek was able to dodge and swerve out of the way easily, flattening out and using the quarry as cover, while Hiccup and Toothless spun and maneuvered up and down, making tight turns thanks to that blue tail fin.

“Easy, bud,” Hiccup cautioned after the first wave of arrows. “This new tail is sensitive. But it’ll be easier to maneuver in that tight quarry.”

“All right, we’ll round up these Hunters and find out what Viggo is up to. I’m not leaving here without that information.”

The two of us dove down, and that’s when the twins went running through the spiral to create the large wall of Barf and Belch’s gas. The Hunters all paused in their fire momentarily, confused as to where that had come from and what it was (apparently, being a Dragon Hunter doesn’t come with knowledge of the dragons you’re hunting), and in that hesitation, Ruff and Tuff sparked up the gas, creating a massive explosion that sent all the men running. It was finally Fishlegs’ turn, and we had the perfect window.

“Okay, we’ve got them distracted. Now release the Quakens!”

Meatlug barfed lava onto the shackles for the chains, allowing the Quakens’ front legs to finally touch the ground again. The two large dragons panted, hesitating likely because they were exhausted, but at least they’d been released; whenever they were ready, they could go. The last thing to take care of was the Hunters, so Hiccup and I flew over to where a large clump was, hovering over their heads.

“It’s over. Now leave,” I ordered.

In a twist of events, the Hunters blinked at Hiccup and I for a moment, then burst out laughing.

“That’s not really the response I was expecting.” I turned to Hiccup, who just shrugged.

One of the Hunters with the mallets stepped up in front of the rest of the group, hitting the stone below him with one strong, loud hit. I had expected the Quakens to just sit there, or maybe fly away altogether; what I wasn’t prepared for was the narrowing of the Quakens’ gaze, their low growls reaching Hiccup and my ears even from our distance. The Hunter thrust the mallet forward, right in Fishlegs’ direction, and the Quakens flapped their wings, hovering in front of Fishlegs and Meatlug before letting out a triumphant roar.

This had gone horribly awry.

“Run!”

The pounding of the Hunter’s mallet matched my thundering heart as Hiccup and I turned our dragons around and made a break for the woods, following closely behind Fishlegs and Meatlug. The twins and Barf and Belch were running as fast as they could, but the Quakens caught up to us quickly, and the impaired dragons weren’t going to stand a chance.

“Hiccup, Toothless!” The two of them looked over at me. “The twins will never be able to outrun those Quakens. We need to draw them away.”

The two of us had our dragons fire down at the Quakens, causing them to stop short for a moment. Shriek faltered slightly, due to using her fireball, but she was able to recover and fly normally after a few seconds.

“I think we got their attention.” Hiccup was so confident in the move, but he clearly wasn’t thinking too far ahead, given the way his expression dropped when the Quakens turned around and roared at us. “Uh, yeah, we did.”

Riding the two fastest dragons in the archipelago certainly had its perks, this exact instance being one of them. The Quakens moved faster the more they rolled, building up their velocity, but Shriek and Toothless were able to put a good distance between us and them for a while. Unfortunately, Toothless’ tail fin locked up when we went a little higher, causing him and Hiccup to slow down significantly.

“Sorry, bud,” he sighed, looking back at the locked mechanism. “I guess it’s good for tight turns, but not high altitudes.” Toothless roared at his rider, as though urging him to hurry up. “I know. I know. I’ll work on it.”

Hiccup jarred his foot back and forth until he finally managed to get the fin to unlock, boosting them up to Shriek and I. We wove through the woods, dodging through trees and using any clearing we got as a chance to speed up. Unfortunately, the Quakens also used those spots to their advantage, and before either of us could predict it, they launched themselves into the air. Only one of them slammed down at first, but the force of the shockwave was enough to cause our dragons to spiral. I tried to push Shriek through to the other side, but just before we’d escaped the shockwave, the other Quaken came down on the other side of us, trapping the two of us in a loop of shockwaves. We’d just barely managed to escape without falling off our dragons, but the Quakens weren’t relenting, forcing Hiccup and I to get our bearings fast and start fleeing. We passed over Fishlegs, but when I turned to see if he was beside me, there was nothing there, and I instead found him behind us, stopped dead in front of the rolling dragons.

He was trying to tame them the same way he had that one back on Dark Deep a long while ago… but something told me it wouldn’t work this time.

“Oh, he can’t be thinking of training them!” I gasped. “Fishlegs, get out of there!”

He refused to flinch, even when the Quakens came dangerously close to his face. Meatlug had to force the two of them out of the way, but they hadn’t turned in time. Panicking, I pushed on Shriek’s saddle, getting her to swoop down to the pair. We just barely managed to pick them up in time, but the Quakens slammed down at the same time, creating a wave of energy so powerful, it felt as though my skin was about to rip off my body. I tried my best to hold onto Shriek, but we’d gotten caught right by the source of the wave, and I got sent tumbling off her back and rolling into the woods, not stopping until my back hit a tree. Thankfully, I’d curled myself into a ball in the process, remembering that would help reduce the risk of severe injuries; I was already sore, but I’d avoided a broken spine.

“Everybody in one piece?” I heard Hiccup call out. Fishlegs pushed himself up, then extended a hand down to me, helping me to my feet.

“We’re good over here,” Ruff answered. “Except, Barf took a branch to the eye.” I flinched as the one head shot his eye open, revealing swollen and burst blood vessels.

“Oh! You guys are a hot mess,” Tuff scoffed. “But I can work with it.”

Fishlegs and I emerged from behind the trees, and Hiccup immediately rushed over, sliding my arm over his shoulders and holding onto me so Fishlegs could release. His eyes scanned over me worriedly, trying to find the source of my occasional winces.

“My back hit a tree,” I explained. “I’ll have some bruises, and I’ll probably be sore, but I’ll live.” I set a hand on his cheek, patting it a couple times before turning back to the blonde that had helped me out of the woods. “Fishlegs, what were you doing out there?” I demanded. “You nearly got yourself pulverized.”

Fishlegs shook his head, eyes refusing to lift from the ground beneath his feet.

“They relate more to the cruelty of their captors than to the kindness of somebody who wanted to help them,” he grieved.

“You know, I had a cousin in Stockholm that that happened to once.” I shot a glare at Tuffnut, warning him that this wasn’t the time for his anecdotes.

“Fishlegs, freeing these dragons isn’t going to be easy,” I warned him.

“Especially when they don’t want to be freed.”

“Those Quakens have obviously been in captivity for a very long time.” I didn’t want to give up, not by any means. We just needed to be smarter in the way we approached this.

“There has to be a way to get through to them somehow.”

“Maybe.” Hiccup’s shrug caused me to stumble a bit. “But we might have to accept that it may be too late to save them. I’m sorry, Fishlegs.”

No way. Absolutely not. We’d already done this to him once with the Gronckles the first time around. I was not about to give up and leave Fishlegs out to dry now. Hiccup could throw in the towel if he wanted, but there was nothing he could say to me that would make me abandon my friend’s rescue plan.

Carefully, I removed myself from Hiccup’s hold and approached Fishlegs, setting a gentle hand on his shoulder. He tried his best to smile at me, but I could tell he was forcing it.

“We’ll figure something out, Fishlegs,” I whispered, making sure Hiccup couldn’t hear me. “I’m not giving up on these guys, either.” Now his smile was at least a little genuine.

I turned back around to see Hiccup just up against the line of trees, watching and bracing himself against a trunk with each vibration. Clearly, the Hunters had gotten the Quakens to come back, and they’d immediately gotten right back into doing their jobs.

“We can’t let this excavation continue,” Hiccup grumbled. “Viggo definitely needs this marble for something big.”

“But we also can’t risk harming the Quakens,” I cautioned.

“Ugh!” I looked back to see Tuff’s face crinkled in disgust. “Barf, your gas breath. Pop in a mint.” Strangely, I didn’t see any green gas lingering in the air. But, after a second, the smell reached me, and I noticed tufts of what almost appeared to be steam coming up from a small crack running along the ground.

“Tuff, that’s not Barf’s breath.” I tried not to get in too close to the fissure. The odor was bad enough standing upright.

“Is it mine?” Ruff gasped, breathing into her hands to check. “Mm. Fish brains.” Her dragon didn’t think the smell was as pleasant, evidenced by the fact he fainted suddenly.

“Come on, woman! Hasn’t he been through enough already?” Tuff griped.

“It’s a fissure,” Fishlegs confirmed. “And gas?” The rumble that shook us that time felt different than the ones the Hunters were causing.

“Quaken-related?” Tuff inquired nervously. I shook my head.

“No. That tremor wasn’t Quaken-related. Not directly, at least.” The reality of what we were facing grew more horrific as I put the pieces together.

“What do you mean?”

“Those earlier tremors that we thought were Quakens were actually the island’s instability.” I gestured to the fissure right as it opened a little more.

“That’s probably why those wild dragons were fleeing the island in the first place,” Fishlegs theorized.

“Exactly. The mining of the marble and the constant Quaken strikes are causing this island to become unstable,” Hiccup finished. Our three brains worked pretty well together.

“So, my breath is fine?” And then, there were the twins. My eyes rolled into the back of my head, feeling like they were going to get stuck there.

“Ugh! Let’s not go crazy,” Tuff gagged. “You’ve got dragon breath. No offense, Barf.” Only now did I notice that Barf had a patch slung over the eye that had been poked.

“Fishlegs, maybe there is a way to stop this operation and get those Quakens off this island after all.” Hiccup was probably readying himself to retort behind me, but I wasn’t going to give him the chance. We were saving those Quakens.

I turned and met eyes with Hiccup, crossing my arms over my chest as he approached. I didn’t fight him on a lot of plans, but I would die on this hill if it came to that. I was tired of giving up just because the solution wasn’t inherently obvious.

“Look, I don’t want it to come to this, but if you’re going to fight me on this rescue, I’m going to tie you to one of the trees until it’s time to go.” His eyes widened a little bit, but he maintained the tiny smile on his face.

“All right, that’s vaguely frightening.” I shrugged. “But I told you before, I’m with you on this—both of you.” I gawked at him, caught off-guard.

“Wh—But, my first plan failed miserably,” I pointed out. “And you seemed pretty set on the fact the Quakens might not be savable.” Hiccup waved his hand into the air dismissively, as though brushing away that standpoint.

“We can do this,” he assured me. “Besides, not every first plan has to work. Sometimes, it’s your retaliation that counts.” I sighed as he stepped a little closer. “You taught me that, when all of this started with Viggo. Whatever your retaliation is going to be, we’re going to make it count.”

Filled with new determination, I turned to Fishlegs, waiting for him to speak first.

“We need to get one of those hammers,” he stated confidently. “They’re the way the Quakens are controlled. If any one of us has one of those—“

“It’ll be you,” I finished. “Like you said: you know these dragons, better than the rest of us. If any one of us should get the Quakens out of here, it’s you.” I re-focused my attention to Hiccup and the twins. “We should at least warn the Hunters about the island breaking down. We might be able to reason with them, but I highly doubt it. Be prepared for that to just be a distraction. We’ll need to think on our feet and adjust to what the Hunters and Quakens are doing quickly. Be prepared.”

My final warning lingered in the air for a moment, then all of us made our way to the edge of the quarry, staring down at the Hunters. Toothless fired down a single plasma blast, getting them to look up at us.

“Shut down this quarry and leave while you can.” My voice boomed down toward them, echoing against the stone walls. “Haven’t you noticed the island’s unstable?” The ground beneath us trembled, emphasizing my point.

The two Hunters watching over the Quakens sprinted up to the restraints and freed the dragons, but I didn’t trust it just yet. They weren’t the sort to listen to us. Hiccup, on the other hand, seemed to think this was over.

“I knew you were reasonable.” The way one of the Hunters dragged his mallet on the ground and stared down the Quakens proved otherwise.

“I don’t think he’s as reasonable as you think, Hiccup,” Tuff observed, straightening him out.

The way the Hunter slammed down his tool caused the Quakens to instantly ball up, preparing themselves to just pound against the ground. I grabbed onto Hiccup’s arm, yanking him along with me once I realized what was about to happen.

“Everyone out!”

Unfortunately, we hesitated just a bit too long, and couldn’t escape the shockwave in time. I felt something slam against me, landing beneath me and cushioning my fall as the ground beneath my feet started to crack. The stone around us split right open in several places, creating more fissures to release gas. The island wasn’t going to hold up much longer, at this rate…

“Okay, maybe the worst is over?” A violent shudder caused Tuff to curl back up again. “I was wrong! Incorrect!”

“Okay, I take back what I said before. We need to get out of here _fast_.” I pushed myself up off of Hiccup and helped him to his feet, scrambling quickly for Shriek.

I’d just managed to get onto her back, when one of the Quakens shot up from the quarry, slamming on the ground. We tried to get high enough not to be hit, but Shriek couldn’t quite turn around in time, and I completely lost control of her, sending the two of us down into a small crack. I could feel pain throbbing through my legs, but I just elected to ignore it, standing right back up. The Quaken that had attacked us leered down through the break above our heads, snarling.

“Okay, girl, we can do this.”

That confidence fell away quite a bit when the ground underneath the Quaken completely crumbled, dropping one down with us in a tight space. The other one arrived just seconds later, trapping us down below.

“Uh, Fishlegs?”

There was silence for quite a while, leaving me to wonder if my friends were even near me… until, out of nowhere, Meatlug sputtered down beside me, and the other Quaken slammed itself against the walls of the crack, creating a much larger opening and revealing Fishlegs standing overhead, one of the mallets in his hand. He raised it into the air and pointed toward the ledge opposite him, and the Quakens followed the movements exactly.

He did it! Fishlegs tamed these Quakens!

There wasn’t time to celebrate, however. The island shook and trembled violently now, the ground beneath Shriek and I already splitting. Her and Meatlug shot back up before the rocks caved in, but we were almost out of time. I met back up with Hiccup in the air, but we both knew we didn’t have a moment to spare making sure the other was okay.

“Fishlegs, we need to get out of here!” I called down to him.

He tapped the mallet lightly against the ground twice, then slid onto Meatlug and gestured toward the air, getting the Quakens to follow us away from the island. Behind me, I could hear the island crumbling and breaking down, gas exploding up to split the ground apart. I almost felt safe, when I realized we were missing a dragon. My head whipped around, and just down in the water, I could spot Barf, Belch, and the twins paddling a boat slowly.

“Uh, what happened to Barf and Belch?” I turned back around to see Astrid, Heather, and Snotlout hovering beside us. “Why is the island sunk? And where did those two Quakens come from. I feel like we missed a lot.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at Snotlout’s confusion.

“Hiccup, we know what Viggo wants the marble for,” Astrid announced. “He’s building a dragon-proof stronghold.” Hiccup and I looked to each other. That wasn’t good…

“A stronghold? We need to strike immediately.”

“It won’t do any good,” Heather countered. “Marble can withstand dragon fire.”

“Um, Hiccup?” I noticed Fishlegs was staring intently at the mallet. “I might have an idea of how we can take it down.”

Of course!

Fishlegs, Hiccup, and I followed Astrid, Snotlout, and Heather to the stronghold locale, right in the center of Viggo’s old base. We’d thought he’d abandoned it, but clearly, this moment proved we were wrong. The Hunters setting up catapults below most certainly noticed us, but we weren’t going to give them the chance to fire at all. Fishlegs pointed the mallet down toward the dome-shaped stronghold, and without hesitating, they balled themselves up and plummeted straight toward the ground, sending out shockwaves powerful enough to blast all the Hunters away. On Fishlegs’ next command, they rolled into the building, crumbling down the loose bonds between the marble and shattering the stones in the process. They didn’t stop until the entire thing had been decimated, and only a second after, approached Fishlegs, already waiting for their next task.

“No. No more work.”

He threw the hammer down violently, abandoning it. Thankfully, that didn’t set off the Quakens, and when Fishlegs extended his hand out to the dragons, they nuzzled into it.

“You did it, Fishlegs,” I breathed, smiling wide.

“But how many more dragons like these does he have out there?”

“If they’re out there, we’ll find them and we’ll free them.” Hopefully, that was a promise Hiccup would now stand firm by. “Now, take us to Dark Deep. It’s time for these Quakens to enjoy their retirement. I’d say they’ve earned it.”

We remembered to pick up the twins on our way back once we left the Quakens on Dark Deep. They’d pretty much stalled out in the boat, waiting for someone to come find them. Hiccup and I sent Barf and Belch to rest up in the stables after tending to his injuries, then joined the rest of the group in the clubhouse, all of us helping out with dinner. Fishlegs told the tale of our adventures to everyone, catching those who weren’t there up to speed. He’d just about finished, when I felt a hand squeeze my leg, bringing my attention over to Hiccup.

“You did amazing today, too.” I felt my cheeks flare red as the whole group turned to look at us. “Seriously. I know I’ve told you this many times before, but you’ve really got some great leadership skills.” A smirk crossed his face for just a second. “You were great, _boss woman_.”

Instinctually, my face buried into my hands, trying to hide the way my blush intensified.

“Oh, gods,” I murmured. “Add that to the list with milady.”

Despite the embarrassment, when everyone else laughed, I did, too.

Momentarily, my eyes flashed over Fishlegs, and I raised my cup to him, saluting all he had done today. The two of us made a pretty good team, both in friendship, and in battle.


	38. Family on the Edge (Hiccup)

Slowly, slowly, the shadow on the sun dial slid to the right point with each creeping movement of the sun setting. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it, afraid of missing our chance by even a second. The dark spot move closer… closer… closer…

“And, go!”

The second I gave the cue, all of our dragons dove off the cliff in front of us, gliding quickly toward the marked wooden boats floating on the water’s surface. The jars of Monstrous Nightmare gel clutched against my chest clattered every now and then with the wind’s movements, but I kept a strong grip on them. We couldn’t afford to lose even a drop right now.

I waited until all of us were over our positions, making sure we’d be able to nail this on the first try.

“Three, two one!”

I stuck my arms out and dropped the two jars down, letting them fall just a bit before I motioned for Toothless to blast them. The jars caught on fire instantly, and the force with which they hit the boat directly below me completely shattered the two next to it, all done within a matter of seconds. Most of the rest of the group managed to do the exact same thing, hitting the targets with precision and speed…

…But then, there was the twins. Not only did they drop their jars in the wrong places, but Barf and Belch lit them too early, meaning the gel was already useless by the time it reached the vicinity of the boats. Frustrated, I landed Toothless and checked the sundial, then turned to the twins.

“Slow and inaccurate. That’s quite a combo.”

“That was also our parents’ nicknames for us.” Tuff was completely disregarding the seriousness of what their error meant. “My nickname was ‘Slow’, which I thought was inaccurate.”

I rolled my eyes, wishing now that Reign and Heather had come back from patrol. I had absolutely no idea how she managed to wrangle the twins and get them to listen to her.

“Viggo doesn’t know we found his shipyard yet,” I reminded them. “We’ll only have one chance at knocking out his fleet. We have to get it right.”

Finished with chastising them, I climbed up onto Toothless’ back, exhausting weight heavy on my limbs. I had forgone sleep lately, for the sake of trying to formulate a plan of attack for Viggo’s new shipyard that Reign and Heather had discovered on one of their patrols a couple weeks ago. We still had the advantage at the moment, and I wasn’t about to let that go. I had sent the two sisters on one last patrol, just to make sure nothing changed, and once we had the information from them, we’d strike.

However, for now, I decided I finally had the chance to catch up on some sleep. I barely managed to stay upright as I slid off Toothless and made my way into my hut.

“Come on, bud,” I yawned. “Let’s get some shut-eye before dinner.”

I could hear someone moving inside my hut, which at least was promising. I expected to see Reign in there, most likely having just returned from her patrol with her younger sister.

The last possible thing I could have expected, something that didn’t even cross my mind, was what I was greeted with instead: Dagur, standing right in the middle of my hut, holding the flaming sword I’d made and staring at it with the wide-eyed gaze of a child. Startled, I cried out and stepped back, unsure of how to really process this.

“Brother!” Dagur noticed I’d taken a step back. “Wait, where are you going? It’s me. Where’s my hug?” Dagur got far too close to me with that sword in his hands, only making me back up further. It took him a second to realize the blade was still ignited, but when he did, he looked down sheepishly. “Oh, sorry. Uh, how do you turn this thing off?”

“Give me that,” I snapped, snatching the sword from his hand and slamming the front door shut, just in case someone else decided to wander by.

“I see you’ve been keeping busy.” He extended his arms out in an attempt to hug Toothless, but my Night Fury growled at him. “Hey, come on, Toothless. Where’s the love, man?”

Shaking my head, I leaned against the trunk on the far corner of the room, then extended the blade out to Toothless, allowing him to blow into it and snuff out the flames. The fact that Dagur had come here, of all places, when there were two women—granted, he only knew about one of them— who lived here that despised him in at least some form further complicated my day. Not to mention, he’d come here at all, somehow. I still wasn’t sure whether or not I could trust him, even after he saved Toothless and I back on that one island.

“What the Thor are you doing here?” I demanded. I had to rely on him being honest with me, which wasn’t exactly something he was known for.

“Heather,” he answered quickly. “I haven’t seen a trace of her. It’s so… frustrating. Besides, I thought I could at least visit the one sister that stays in one place. Speaking of which, where is Reign? I feel like I never really see you two apart.”

“Out on patrol, with—“ I caught myself before I could say Heather’s name; she’d made it very clear she wanted to remain hidden from Dagur, and I would respect that. “—Astrid.”

“I gotta have a dragon,” he blurted out.

Now, wait a minute…

“What?” I gawked, unsure if I’d heard him correctly.

“To find Heather, I need to cover more ground faster. Dragony fast!” Yup, I’d heard him right the first time. But, putting Dagur on a dragon? That seemed not only like a bad idea, but downright irresponsible.

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” I nearly got knocked off my feet when Dagur grabbed me by my arm and started shaking it.

“Hiccup! You and Toothless owe me. I saved your lives.” Furious, I yanked my arm away from his grasp. He tried to use the one instance he did something good against me? Had that been the plan from the start?

“You also tried to kill us,” I stated bluntly.

“Did I really?” he whined. “I think maybe in here, I never really wanted to.”

Odin, he was desperate. Even if giving him a dragon would shut him up and get him to leave, I couldn’t put that sort of power in his hands. There were so many vulnerable islands out there, not to mention that meant he could show up at the Edge at any point when we weren’t prepared and Heather was just out in the open. True, I hadn’t seen him coming today, either, but the person he’d been searching for was still out on patrol with her sister. We’d gotten lucky this one time, and I couldn’t risk any future mistakes.

“Oh, gods. I… I can’t train you to ride a dragon.”

“Why not?” He did _not_ give up.

“I… don’t have the time,” I lied. Out of nowhere, Dagur’s eager and desperate demeanor dropped.

“Oh. You’re too busy. I get it. Sorry. Guess I’ll be going.” Finally. “First maybe I’ll, you know, take a stroll around the base. See a few friends. Make a few apologies.”

I spoke too soon. The moment he started to walk toward the door, I panicked. I had no way of knowing whether or not Heather and Reign had come back yet, but I wasn’t about to let Dagur be the one to find out for me. Even if they hadn’t come back yet, any of the others finding Dagur here was just as bad. Knowing this group, they’d shoot first and ask questions later, and I really just didn’t want to deal with that.

“Uh…” I stepped out in front of Dagur, completely blocking him from getting to the door. “No, no, no, no. You can’t.”

“Why not?”

I was going to regret this, but right now, it was the only distraction I had. Hopefully, I’d be able to come up with something to get out of it by morning.

“Because, uh, you’ve got to be up early tomorrow… uh… to start your training!”

It was scary how Dagur and Reign had the exact same look when they were confused.

“Are you serious?” he asked, flabbergasted. “But I thought—“

“Okay, we’ll meet first thing in the morning on the far side of the island. That’s where the best wild dragons are. Actually, you should go there right now and camp out for the night.”

My heart pumped furiously as I watched his face change, slipping into anger for a second… before he broke out into a smile and hugged me tight, cutting off my air a bit.

“Thank you, Hiccup! Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” I wheezed. I expected him to let go after that point, but he started to squeeze tighter.

“You’re so small and cuddly.” Disgusted and disturbed, I managed to push him away and shove him out toward the front door.

“Please never say that again,” I gagged. “Uh, so, I’ll see you later. Remember, on the far, far side of the island.”

I let out a sigh of relief the moment he was gone. Any intentions I had on getting sleep were officially thrown out the window, instead replaced by hand-trembling anxiety. Having Dagur hide in the woods on the far side of the island would work for the rest of today, but what about tomorrow? No doubt I wouldn’t be able to explain why I had to go to the other end of the Edge to Heather or Reign without them. The latter would grill me to no end, but I just wanted to get rid of him and be done with this insanity.

“Hey, babe.”

My heart lept into my throat as I whipped around, unsure of what to expect at first. Logic and reason had left my brain, preventing me from remembering there was only one person here that would call me by that nickname. Reign flinched a bit herself when I turned around so quickly, nearly striking her in the process. Once the adrenaline died down, I moved closer to her, feeling terrible for what I’d almost just done.

“I’m so sorry, Reign,” I sighed. “I didn’t realize you were there.” She chuckled as she placed her hands on my arm.

“You’re so jumpy,” she laughed. “Did you really miss me that much? We were gone for a day.” I tried to breathe slowly to get my heart to calm down as I rested my forehead against hers.

“Always.” I leaned forward to kiss her, then got down to the business she’d left to take care of. “Did you see anything at the shipyard?” The way she grimaced definitely couldn’t mean anything good.

“There’s more ships,” she spat out, running a hand through her hair. “He’s added more. So, now we’re dealing with twelve ships instead of eight.” Reign broke away from me and pulled the tarp off the table, revealing the layout we’d created to help plan our attack. She grabbed onto three loose ship pieces and put them into the placed she and Heather had seen them. “We should still be able to take them out, as long as Heather and I each carry another jar of gel. I know it’s a risky move, but at this point, it’s probably the most surefire one.”

Reign continued to speak, but I’d tuned out whatever she was saying. An increase in ships, on the same day her brother showed up on this island? How convenient was that? Dagur wasn’t always the brightest, but he could scheme better than anyone else. Maybe this was all just a coincidence? After all, he would’ve planned far enough ahead to at least know that one of us would notice the two events happening at the same time. Or, was I giving him too much credit?

“Hiccup?”

I quickly turned to look at Reign, who was eyeing me worriedly. She had one hand resting on the table, halfway through strategizing, and the other running a thumb along my cheek. She looked over my face one more time, then smiled softly and threw the tarp over the board.

“All right, come on.” Without really giving me much of a choice, she grabbed onto my hands and started to pull me toward the door. “Let’s get you out and moving. You want to go for a flight before dinner?”

I almost agreed, until the elephant in the room came stomping back into my mind.

“No, no. I’m worried I’d crash Toothless.” She giggled as her eyes fell to my dragon, who was fast asleep on the floor. “Is your sister making dinner? Maybe we should help her out.” Reign shook her head.

“Yeah, with Fishlegs. Figured I’d give them some space.” I nodded. There went that idea. I was trying to think of something else, anything else, that would keep her away from where I’d sent Dagur, when a smirk crossed her face. “You know what? Let’s just stay here.”

Perfect.

“…but somebody better explain how yak stew got in my pants!”

I snapped my attention back to the story Tuff had been telling as everyone burst out into laughter. Whatever he’d said before clearly made that statement far more hilarious than it sounded on its own. Still, to make is seem like I hadn’t been completely tuned out, I forced out laughter.

“It was so warm.”

I wanted to somehow comment on the story, but the moment my eyes fell on Reign and Heather, I just got so distracted by the thought of their brother waiting on the other side of the island.

“Hey, uh, speaking of soggy pants, you ever wonder what happened to Dagur and his crazy pants?” I hadn’t intended for the question to slip out, but there was no backing out now—especially based on the way Reign and Heather looked at me.

“Uh, no,” Snotlout answered, no emotion in his words.

“And for the record, I don’t think his pants were that crazy,” Ruffnut shrugged.

“What brings Dagur up anyway?” It was so rare I saw Fishlegs look at someone with such intense anger, and I’d never seen it directed straight at me.

“Nothing,” I dismissed. “But since we’re on the subject of Dagur now, uh, do you ever wonder why he helped Heather escape from Viggo?”

“Probably as a distraction so that he could get away himself.” Reign crossed her arms against her chest and pushed one foot against the table, her eyebrow arched up to the sky.

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

Reign had talked, in the past, about still having this buried love for her brother, even if he tried to kill her on numerous occasions. I’d watched her opinion of him shift and soften the older and more mature all of us got. Had her desire to protect her younger sister really reversed all of that?

“But, what if it was actually the first step on a path toward a new life?”

“’A new life?’ Dagur?” Even Reign looked at Heather like she had lost it after she slammed her fist down onto the table. “A dragon doesn’t change its markings, Hiccup.”

“Uh, technically…”

“Except for a Changewing, yes, I know,” she sighed, cleaning up some of the drink she’d spilled onto herself.

“And a—“

“You get the point!” Slowly, Reign place a hand on Heather’s shoulder, trying to diffuse the bomb before it completely exploded.

“Right.” My voice trembled, startled by the violent outburst. “You’re probably right. But then again, uh…” I wracked my brain, trying to think of something that wouldn’t completely give me away. “…who would’ve thought that my father, Stoick the Vast, would ever learn to ride a dragon? You never know. Next time we see Dagur—“

“I’ll split the father-killer in two!”

Everyone stared at Heather, eyes wide and jaws dropped, when she shot up and swung her axe down onto the table that had been holding some of the extra food, splitting it in half. Apparently, there would be absolutely no way to get these two to reach some sort of truce. Maybe Reign and Dagur, but certainly not Heather. I had to make sure she never crossed paths with him while he was here.

“Yep. Okay. I think we get your point.” Heather sighed and pulled her axe back out of the wood, shaking her head.

“I better go. I have island patrol tonight.” Nope, nope! That had to be fixed.

“Uh… Actually, I’ll take that,” I offered. “I have a way more important mission for you.” I probably should’ve come up with a plan before I started spitting something out, but that appeared to be my theme for today: speaking before thinking.

“You do?”

“Of course I do.” Thankfully, an idea popped into my head. It certainly wasn’t the best one, much like how I’d dealt with Dagur, but it would do. “It’s, uh, one final recon mission to check out our target. You and Reign.” Her sister stared at me harder, if that was even possible.

“What are you talking about? We literally just got back a few hours ago. Besides, we went together last time.”

“I know. That’s why I’m sending you again. To be on the lookout for any last-minute changes.” That was definitely the worst part of this. Reign had _just_ showed me what changed.

“That sort of makes sense.” Reign shook her head at her sister.

“No, it doesn’t. We were just there, Hiccup. What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing! Just, you should leave tonight.” Reign was definitely onto me now. The suspicion that crossed her face guaranteed it.

“Tonight? But I haven’t even packed. And it’s gonna take a whole day to get there.” Still, Reign pushed herself back from the table and started to clean up her and her sister’s dishes.

“Jeez, Hiccup, are you trying to get rid of us?” I could feel a nervous sweat start to prickle on the skin underneath my armor.

“Yes.” I’d answered without thinking. That wasn’t good. “No, no! That’s crazy! Why would I…?”

“I’m kidding, Hiccup,” Heather giggled. “Relax.”

The tension completely released from my body when Reign and Heather finally left the clubhouse, heading off to pack and get out of here. Hopefully, they’d just fly away straight from the stables, rather than going around the island. It felt like this plan required as many variables as trying to outsmart Viggo. Reign and Heather weren’t exactly the easiest people to get on board with something so last-minute like this, especially given how intelligent the two of them were. No doubt at least Reign had figured out something was wrong. I just had to get through tomorrow morning, then I could send Dagur away, and our problem would be solved.

I decided I’d had enough excitement for one day, so I climbed onto Toothless to head back to my hut. By the time I got there, it had already been abandoned, and although I felt a heaviness in my chest, but Reign and Heather were already gone. There was nothing I could do to get in a goodbye now.

I tried my best to fall asleep that night, but worry and anxiety just kept me in a suspended state between dreams and the real world. Eventually, I figured it was no use, so I took Toothless out in the middle of the night and started to go through wild dragons, saving me some time tomorrow with Dagur. Despite the fact I’d been up all night, the adrenaline of sneaking out to the other end of the island the next morning was enough to keep me wide awake. Toothless and I flew to the area where the wild dragons were most plentiful, and the second we landed, Dagur was running up to us, clearly bouncing with excitement.

“Finally!” Almost instantly, he drew himself back slightly. “Not mad, just excited.”

“Yeah, I see that.” I still couldn’t believe I’d agreed to do this.

“Been thinking about what kind of dragon I should ride. Something that makes a statement. You don’t have any Skrills hanging around, do you?” Considering what I’d seen Dagur do with a Skrill before, any dragon like that was out of the question.

“What? No.” I crossed my arms, firmly shutting down that sort of idea.

“Well, I suppose I could settle for a Night Fury,” Dagur shrugged. “Not the same ‘zhush’ as a Skrill, but I could get by.”

“Sorry, he’s one of a kind,” I snapped.

“How about a Razorwhip, like Heather’s? Or a Thunderdrum?” He was thinking far too advanced for his skills. Not to mention, he’d never see me put him on a dragon that dangerous.

“Dagur, I already picked out a dragon for you,” I revealed, shutting down his ideas. “You’re gonna love it.”

I let out one sharp, clear whistle, summoning the dragon I’d settled on last night. I could hear him thundering against the ground, his enthusiasm already evident before we could even see him. The bushes rustled and the dust on the ground kicked up high, creating the illusion he was much bigger than he actually was—which was enough to get Dagur worked up.

“He’s awesome, right? And dangerous?” he cackled. “Because I already picked out a name: ‘Shattermaster.’”

‘Shattermaster’, an enthusiastic, green Gronckle, burst through the bushes, stopping short in front of Dagur and panting excitedly. A Gronckle was just powerful enough for Dagur to hopefully want to bond with him, but not as dangerous as most other dragons.

“Uh… is this my dragon’s breakfast?” Dagur asked, his disappointment obvious.

“No, this is Shattermaster,” I corrected. There was something _so_ satisfying about this. “The perfect dragon for you. Stable, easy to ride.”

“Yeah, uh, I am not riding that dragon,” he argued.

“Then you’re not riding any dragon.”

“It’s beneath me,” Dagur scoffed. I rolled my eyes at him, trying to keep myself composed.

“Not yet. Prove to me that you can even get on it.”

Dagur started out so confident. He tried to jump on Shattermaster’s back, but the Gronckle shuffled out of the way, causing Dagur to fall right on his back. Not one to give up, he started to chase after the dragon, repeatedly jumping to try and catch Shattermaster in any capacity, but almost every time, he just ended up slamming against the ground. I wasn’t remotely worried, until Dagur actually managed to catch up to Shattermaster and vaulted himself over his back, causing his dragon to bat him away with his tail and over the edge of the cliff. Horrified, I rushed over, peering down to see he’d thankfully managed to grab onto a branch.

“Are you okay?” I asked, genuinely concerned.

“You made your point, Hiccup,” he strained out. “We’ll do it your way.”

Toothless lowered his tail down so Dagur could grab on and get back up onto the ground, and finally, he started to listen. I demonstrated how all of us had tamed our dragons, ensuring Shattermaster wouldn’t bite Dagur’s hand off as he extended it out, then ran them through the basics of taking off and landing. I could see Dagur was unsteady and nervous at first, but when Toothless and I started to fly alongside him, he eased up a little bit. They still struggled occasionally, evidenced when Dagur grabbed onto Shattermaster’s wing, inadvertently tipping the two of them downward. Toothless and I managed to catch them before they hit the ground, but training at this height suddenly worried me.

“Maybe we should try something a little more down to earth,” I suggested.

“Sure, sure.”

Dagur and I steered down below the tree lines, working on navigation through the trunks. Steering a dragon correctly was crucial, but I noticed a glaring error with the way Dagur tried to maneuver Shattermaster.

“You’re trying to steer him too much,” I pointed out. “You need to trust your dragon, Dagur. He doesn’t want to hit the trees any more than you do.”

“If you say so!”

Out of nowhere, Dagur went whizzing past Toothless and I, gaining a lead for only a split second. He wasn’t prepared to steer Shattermaster, and as a result, slammed into a tree, causing the two of them to bounce back and knocked me off my dragon. I’d gotten quite a bit of dust into my mouth, but I’d be fine; and, from the looks of it, Dagur would be, too.

“Bad, Dagur, bad!” he scolded, smacking his head. “I’m sorry, Hiccup.”

“You’re trying too much too soon,” I panted, trying to recover from the shock. I’d started to move my leg to stand, when I noticed my foot mechanism on my peg leg had bent out of shape. Sighing, I pulled it off its rope and passed it over to Dagur. “Great. I can’t fly Toothless like this.”

“I can straighten it out.” Before I could stop him, Dagur pushed down on the metal, snapping it away from the wood. “Oops.” He extended it out to me, like there was something I was supposed to do with that. “Here you go.”

“It’s okay. I have a spare back at my hut. I’ll take your dragon and be back as soon as I can.”

“Okay.” Dagur helped me over to Shattermaster, and boosted my leg up so I could get both over the back of his dragon.

“Now you stay right here,” I ordered. “Don’t go anywhere. Don’t do anything, all right? Toothless, keep an eye on him.”

Steering Shattermaster wasn’t exactly the easiest or most comfortable thing, considering I’d gotten so used to Toothless, but we managed to work together long enough to get back to my hut and hobble over to my chest, where I kept the few spare legs. Putting the thing on and getting back to where Dagur and I had been probably took only a few minutes, but by the time we got back, Dagur and Toothless had disappeared completely.

This wasn’t good.

Trying to remain rational, I searched the island first, thinking he’d maybe just taken my Night Fury for a joyride, and he _hadn’t_ kidnapped my dragon and taken him to a Hunter base to be shackled and sold… or worse.

I’d just circled around the woods and started to head back toward the huts when I hard loud, angry shouts and screams, and then… the twins singing. That never meant anything good. I steered Shattermaster in that direction, and sure enough, there stood Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the twins, all leering over Dagur, who was tied up. This wasn’t exactly the way I had hoped this conversation with this particular group of people would go down, but I was forced to just face the music at this point.

“And it only gets worse,” Tuff warned, in reference to his and his sister’s horrible singing. “Ask Hiccup.” It took him a second, but he realized I was behind him, and when he turned to me, he appeared surprised.

“Hiccup!” Fishlegs cheered, his expression relieved.

Astrid, on the other hand, was _furious_. She stormed toward me, eyes set to kill, and shoved Dagur aside in the process, stopping just short of getting right up in my face. That didn’t make her proximity any less threatening, however.

“What’s going on here?” she demanded, screaming a bit. “Dagur says you’re buddies now and you’re teaching him to ride a dragon.” I stuck my hand out, breaking her pattern of poking me and pushing her hand back. I tried to explain, but at first, the only thing that came out was nervous, trembling laughter.

“Yeah, it’s a funny story, actually.”

“Dagur and ‘funny story’ are not two things that should be in the same sentence,” Snotlout grumbled.

“Look, I’ll explain, but can we please just move this somewhere else and untie him? If Reign and Heather come back and see him here, we’re all in danger.”

The five of them reluctantly agreed, breaking Dagur’s bonds only once all of us were tucked away safely in the clubhouse. Dagur leaned up against the table, acting like he’d been friendly with this group since the beginning, and I calmly explained how Dagur and I had run into each other on the recon mission, remembering to put constant emphasis on the fact that he had saved Toothless and I on multiple occasions that day.

“…Then I flew in one direction and he sailed off in the other,” I finished.

Everyone blinked at the two of us, still processing that Dagur hadn’t taken the opportunity to knock Toothless and I off.

“So, Dagur saved your life?” Astrid still looked at him with apprehension, but it had lessened a bit.

“And Toothless’,” Dagur added. “Right, bud?” Toothless growled, but the way he moved indicated agreement.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Snotlout sighed, shaking his head.

“Yeah, why didn’t you tell ‘em, brother?” I figured that would’ve been pretty obvious, but there was a lot to figure out in this situation.

“Because I wasn’t sure how you would feel about it,” I explained. “’Cause I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. And I’m dating a woman who probably wouldn’t know how she felt about it.”

“To be fair, I have done some pretty questionable things,” Dagur shrugged.

“Questionable?” Fishlegs growled. “Trying to kill us is not ‘questionable.’” Dagur fell silent and scratched the back of his head, at a loss for words.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. He saved you. I get that,” Tuff dismissed. “But why are you teaching him how to ride a dragon?”

“I’m looking for Heather.” Everyone glanced at each other, either wearing inopportune smiles or concerned, wide-eyed shock.

“Yes, and the sooner I teach him how to fly, the sooner he can leave to go find her, wherever she might be.” I’d hoped my tone would have tipped everyone off to keep their mouths shut, but the twins were a special kind of dense.

“Dagur, have we got some news for you,” Ruff piped up, blissfully unaware of the tone of this situation.

“Yes, yes, we do,” I interjected, motioning for Astrid and Snotlout to deal with the twins. “Fishlegs, here, is the best Gronckle trainer in the world. He can help improve your flying.”

“Aww, thanks, Hiccup,” Fishlegs blushed.

“Maybe you should go train him.” The two of us were trying our best to ignore the fact the twins were shouting behind us. “Now!”

“Ohh, yes. Right away.”

I breathed a sigh of relief once everyone that was a risk had been evacuated, but that didn’t last long. Astrid returned, without Snotlout or the twins, keeping her disgusted glare stiff on her face. I knew exactly what she was going to say, but I at least wanted to delay for a little bit, in order to affirm the plans we’d made for this shipyard. So long as Heather and Reign didn’t actually find anything different, I was fairly certain I had a way to take down the four extra ships.

Without saying a word, I climbed onto Toothless and headed back to my hut, forcing her to follow. I looked over the board again, trying to figure out what the deal with those extras were, exactly. Based on what Reign had said, they weren’t actually active, just sitting there. So what was the point of them, versus the ones that had just been added?

“Eight ships being worked on at once,” I sighed, looking across the table to Astrid. “If we hit them in one coordinated strike, we could cripple Viggo’s fleet. We don’t even have to worry about the four new ones.”

“Could we talk about the Rumblehorn in the room, please?” Astrid grunted, completely disregarding everything I’d just laid out. “Dagur, here?”

“I know. I know.” I shrugged my shoulders. “But he seems like he’s really trying to change.”

“You don’t think it’s strange that he shows up here right as we’re about to attack Viggo’s shipyard?” she challenged. I wanted to say that I’d thought about that, to prove that I had already gone through these scenarios, but… with Astrid, none of that would work.

“You weren’t there, Astrid,” I argued. “He could have turned us over to Viggo’s men, but… he helped us escape.”

“Did he?” she challenged, leaning closer against the wooden table. “Or is that what they wanted you to think, so they could put a spy among us?” I couldn’t keep fighting for Dagur’s position now. She wasn’t letting up.

“Look, I’m not blind to the risks, Astrid. Why do you think I gave him the slowest, least dangerous dragon I could find? It’s… It’s just that…” Finally, I’d gotten through to Astrid. Her expression softened, and the tension melted away from her shoulders.

“What?”

“When the chips were down and I thought the Hunters had me for sure, Toothless let Dagur ride him to save me. If Toothless trusts him, then I have to try to trust him, too.” She remained silent for another moment, her eyes falling to her shoes before looking back up.

“What about Reign?” I sighed, my stomach immediately knotting up. “Aren’t you worried about how your girlfriend would react, knowing he’s been here, in her home?” It took me a moment to get out the words. Strangely, she hadn’t talked to Astrid about this; I figured she would’ve already.

“The thing is, she doesn’t completely hate him. She doesn’t even want someone to hurt him.” Astrid’s eyes went wide. “She’s told me that, even though he’s done terrible things, she doesn’t want to see him suffer because he’s still her brother. I think the only reason she’s been more rigid about Dagur as of late is because of Heather. She’s just… trying to protect her little sister, the same way he tried to protect Reign and Heather with the Hunters, and Reign tries to protect him from anything but getting thrown in jail. I can tell at least Dagur and Reign care about each other a lot more than they’re willing to admit.”

For the time being, Astrid was convinced.

“Well, then let’s hope she still thinks that way, and you and Toothless are right about Dagur… for all our sakes.” That was all I needed right now. The team I relied on was mostly willing to work with me on this.

“Maybe we should go check on them,” I suggested. “See how he and Fishlegs are doing.”

“Okay. But, just to be safe.”

Astrid threw the tarp over the table, then the two of us called for our dragons and took off, flying around the Edge until we found Fishlegs, hovering on Meatlug and watching the layer of clouds. Dagur was nowhere to be seen at the moment, but nothing about Fishlegs’ expression would lead me to believe he’d escaped us.

“Fishlegs, how’s your student?” Fishlegs pointed behind him just as Dagur and Shattermaster came zooming by upside down, making a loop before stopping beside their teacher.

“He’s a fast learner!”

“I have an excellent teacher,” Dagur complimented.

“Oh, stop it, you.” Beside me, I heard Astrid scoff. “Look at this move he came up with. Remember the Gronckle Drop? Well, watch this!”

In perfect synch, Dagur and Fishlegs steered their Gronckles as high as possible, then flipped them upside-down, rocketing toward the water before they managed to upright themselves at the last second, sealing the entire thing off with a high-five.

“That was insane!” I laughed once the pair flew back up to Astrid and I.

“I know!” Fishlegs cried. “We call it the ‘Inverted Gronckle Drop.’ We could really use it on our next mission.”

Something in me halted, warning me to shut this down now. While I was okay with giving Dagur a dragon and training him to ride it, implying that he could be a part of the team went too far. He needed to get out of here before Heather returned.

“Ah. I think that’s enough training for you two.”

“But, there’s hours of light left,” Dagur protested. “I have so much left to learn!”

“Oh, you’re still training,” Astrid piped up. “With me.” Somehow, that was just as bad as the thought of Dagur joining the Riders.

“Uh, he is?” I asked warily.

“Relax, Hiccup,” Dagur shrugged. “She obviously doesn’t trust me and wants to check me out for herself.”

“Oh, hey, he’s not as dumb as he looks.”

For a moment, Dagur’s face crumpled, wearing a sinister glower, but just as quickly as that arrived, he replaced it with a carefree smile.

“And now she’s trying to provoke me,” he chuckled. “But it won’t work.” His unstable laughter convinced me otherwise, but I figured it was probably better to leave him with Astrid for a while than to send him away after that exchange.

“Seriously?” Astrid groaned, rolling her eyes.

“Try not to hurt him.” 

“No promises,” she shouted as Fishlegs and I made our way back to the Edge.

I tried my best to stay busy and alert, keeping one eye out for Heather and Reign and the other for Dagur and Astrid. The fear of one group returning before the other, or both at the same time kept shouting at me, refusing to let me forget this situation I’d created. I should’ve just been honest with Reign, but I planned on telling her once her brother was gone, so hopefully, that would alleviate this a little bit. I couldn’t imagine the conversation going terribly well, but I didn’t think it would explode, either.

Thankfully, Astrid and Dagur returned to the Edge first, and she actually seemed to be more relaxed around him now. All of us made our way to the clubhouse for dinner, and Astrid explained how their training had actually gone really well while Ruff and Tuff talked to Dagur.

“This is the ‘Reverse Tuffnut.’” Tuff started moving Chicken around in different, looping patterns. “This, the ‘Double Twist Tuffnut.’ And, my personal favorite, the ‘Tuffnut surprise.’ Dinner and a show.” He shook Chicken a little, causing an egg to fall down and into Dagur’s hand.

“Did you name all these moves yourself?” I tried not to snicker at the fact that even Dagur was humoring the twins’ slight insanity.

“Maybe.”

The three of them continued their conversation, now much quieter, and after standing in silence for a while, Astrid spoke up again.

“Are you going to tell Dagur about Heather?” she whispered, making sure Dagur wouldn’t hear.

“How can I? You heard her last night. She clearly isn’t ready to see him.”

“Well, then get him off the Edge,” Astrid hissed. “She and Reign could be back any minute.”

“Yes, I know,” I groaned. “Why do you think I’m teaching him how to fly? I figure we’ve got until sundown tomorrow to get him out of here.”

“To get who out of here?”

My heart stopped completely, that nervous sweat from before breaking out again. I refused to move my legs at first, not wanting the source of the voice to be who I feared it was. But, eventually, I had to face the music, and when I slowly turned myself, I saw Dagur’s two sisters standing there, both with one eyebrow raised as they stared straight at me.

“We raced back,” Reign explained.

“I think I know who lost,” I gulped.

Heather and Reign’s gazes wandered just past Astrid and I, resting on their brother, sitting right out in the open. One set of green eyes flew open wide, while the others narrowed, and the source removed her axe from her back.

“You!” Heather growled. Upon hearing the noise, Dagur turned around and shot up from his seat, incorrectly reading the room.

“Sister!”

When Heather charged, my eyes slammed shut, dreading the moment to come. Dagur was good at defending himself, but I knew he wouldn’t dare raise his weapon against his youngest sister. I braced myself for the loud cry of pain from Dagur.

“ _Aah!”_

I shot my eyes open immediately. That wasn’t a man’s scream.

My jaw dropped, horrified, as I stared at the scene in the center of the room. Reign was stood between Heather and Dagur, her hand clamped around the blade of her sister’s weapon, pushing back hard enough that it dug into her skin. I could see tears brimming in her eyes, and dark blood running onto her wrist and soaking her brown tunic, but she refused to relent until Heather pulled the weapon back, staring at what she’d just done. Reign hissed in pain and clamped her other hand around the injury, but refused to let up from her position.

“Reign! What the Thor are you doing?” Heather was screaming, the emotions ripping through her throat.

“I thought we agreed, way back, that killing Dagur wasn’t an option!” Reign cried out in pain again. I wanted to pull her aside and help deal with the wound, but I figured that wasn’t a safe option at the moment. “I don’t care how much you hate him, Heater, we don’t kill.”

“So, I guess a hug is out of the question?” Both of Dagur’s sister’s whipped around to glare at him. Heather, finding the loophole in what Reign had said, reached past her sister and socked her brother straight in the jaw. He stumbled a bit, but remained conscious.

“How long have you been here?” Heather demanded.

“A couple days. I’ve been learning how to ride a dragon” I flinched as Heather and Reign both turned to stare me down. The former genuinely looked like she wanted to murder me. “How long have _you_ been here?”

“A few weeks, not that it’s any of your business.” Now, all three siblings were focused on me.

“Okay, before we address this, can we at least fix of Reign’s hand?” I tried to get closer to her, but she stuck her arms out, clamped together to stop the bleeding. “Never mind.”

“Hiccup Haddock, I cannot believe you kept my Heather from me,” Dagur scolded, rubbing his jaw to alleviate the pain. “I was so worried. Was she alive? Was she dead?”

“Oh, please,” Heather scoffed. “Drop the act. And you! Bad enough you were consorting with my mortal enemy. But then you teach him how to ride dragons? Have you lost your mind?” I grabbed onto her hands, which had been shaking me by my tunic, and pushed them away.

“Heather, he saved my life,” I tried to explain.

“I’m sorry, what?” Reign shouted. “So you’ve run into him before? And you worked with him?”

“Don’t act like you’re all innocent in this, Reign,” Dagur laughed bitterly. “Need I remind you that you clearly helped hide our little sister from me as well?” At least her rage was focused on Dagur now.

“Excuse me for protecting her from an absolute psychopath.” The two of them started taking heavy steps toward each other.

“As opposed to whom, exactly?” Dagur spat. “Someone that’s constantly putting her in danger by flying headfirst into Dragon Hunter traps? It would’ve been better if she stayed with me. At least she would’ve been hidden and safe!”

“Oh, _please_! You’re no good for her. You’re so manipulative, I don’t even think you know what about you is real and what you’ve created.”

I blinked at the two of them, unsure of what exactly happened here. The argument turned from all three of them going in on me, and admittedly for good reason, to the two of them yelling at and insulting each other. Was this what it was like to have siblings?

“What are you even still doing here? You need to go!”

“Now, Reign, hold on—“

“You think it’s a coincidence that he shows up now before this mission?” Heather snapped. “It’s a setup, Hiccup. Can’t you see that?”

“To be fair, that was my first thought, too.” The three of them directed their attentions to Astrid.

“He set me adrift as a child,” Heather shot back.

“He used to terrorize me whenever I spent time with Dad.” Reign raised an eyebrow at her brother.

“He killed our father, for Thor’s sake.” Strangely, I noticed Reign slammed her lips shut after her sister threw out that accusation. “He tried to kill each of us multiple times.” Dagur’s anger had completely disappeared, leaving him looking to the floor in embarrassment.

“Most, if not all, of those things are true, but I am trying to change, sisters.” Heather grabbed him roughly by his armor and held her axe right up against his neck.

“Don’t ever call me that, spy.” Hands now coated in blood, Reign stepped up and pulled her sister off her brother, shooting her a warning glare.

“Heather, seriously.”

“What? So, when you were my age, you got to attack and get your revenge, but now that I have the opportunity, you’re not going to let me? How is that fair?”

“I’m trying to keep you from doing something you’ll regret,” Reign sighed, her voice heavy with exasperation.

“To be fair, Heather sort of has a point,” Dagur shrugged. The fire immediately returned to the middle sibling’s eyes.

“Oh, so what, you’re taking her side on this?”

“Don’t act like that fixes _anything,_ Dagur! You’re still a spy for the Hunters!”

Seriously, what was happening here? How could they so quickly go from being focused to turning on each other and devolving into pointless arguing?

“I’m not a spy,” Dagur denied. “I don’t know how I could possibly prove that. I guess you’re just gonna have to take my word for it.” He glanced around at everyone in the room, but no one dared to move. “Yeah, I don’t think I would take it, either, if I were you. So, thank you all for the hospitality, but I think Shattermaster and I should be going. Good day.”

Guilt overtook me as Dagur turned on his heel and started to head out.

“Oh, come on. Dagur. Dagur.”

“I said ‘good day,’” he sobbed. Reign hissed in pain again, her right hand returning to the wound, and Snotlout stepped in front of the rest of us.

“Was he crying?” he asked, sounding utterly baffled.

“Yeah! Tears of laughter, at us.”

“Heather.” Reign stepped back when her sister turned to her.

“Seriously, whose side are you on?”

I’d had enough of all of this. I grabbed onto Reign’s shoulder, pulling her down to sit across from me to take a look at the wound. I could feel her staring me down as I wiped away the blood, but I chose to ignore it at least until I knew what sort of wound it was. Tendons and muscle were evident deep down, meaning it’d have to be stitched up. I sent Astrid to go get bandages, mead, a needle, and some thread, and while we waited, I finally looked up at her.

“Just out with it already,” I sighed.

“I just want to know what happened to not lying to each other anymore,” she huffed.

“I know, I know. I promise I was going to tell you once you and Heather came back, but I needed enough time to figure out how to get rid of him.” That probably came out worse than I intended.

“So, you thought hiding the fact that my brother was on this island was the right solution?” I paused a second.

“You weren’t the one I was trying to hide him from.” Reign straightened a bit, her eyes flashing back to her sister. “I was planning on telling you, but you caught me off-guard with the new ships, and then… other things happened, and then Heather freaked out at dinner.” I moved my free hand up to her cheek. “I promise you I was going to tell you, but I didn’t think it was safe.”

I held my breath, waiting for her to say anything. Although she didn’t speak, her glare softened, and she leaned her forehead against my own. I got the message, loud and clear.

Once Astrid had dressed and stitched up her wound, the two of us decided to go find Dagur before he left. I knew Reign had just gotten worked up at the moment, and although she couldn’t completely forgive him, she was at least willing to try getting along with her brother.

The two of us managed to track him down at our hut, where he had pulled the tarp aside and was looking over the plans we’d been putting together. Reign’s eyes widened, and I watched her lunge forward a bit, but I grabbed onto her right hand and squeezed it a little, cautioning her against attacking her brother for now. This didn’t look good, but maybe it wasn’t as terrible as our minds made it out to be.

“What are you doing?” It came out a bit harsh, but I suppose that was warranted for this.

“Everyone kept dropping hints about some big mission,” Dagur murmured. “I thought I should take a look. Heather and Reign may hate me, but I do not want either of them flying any suicide mission.” He glanced up from the board to see Reign standing beside me, her eyes now downcast with guilt.

“Dagur, I don’t hate you,” she sighed. “I definitely should, considering how many times you tried to kill the love of my life and myself. But… you’re still my brother, and I don’t want terrible things to happen to you.” He appeared to be at a loss for words at the moment, but the way he smiled at his sister said enough.

With that out of the way, the three of us turned back to the plans.

“It’s a shipyard,” Reign explained. “Viggo is retrofitting his ships. Enlarging the cells for bigger dragons, it looks like.” Her brother looked toward the edges, and his brow furrowed.

“Hm. Remarkably undefended.”

“It’s very remote,” I continued. “Deep behind his lines and shrouded in fog.”

“Hmm. Seems a little too easy.” I shook my head. Dagur didn’t know the reason for that, yet, but I figured he’d already come up with his own explanations.

“We’ve kept an eye on it for weeks. Viggo doesn’t defend it because he doesn’t think we know about it.”

“Let me guess.” He dragged his finger over the top of the scene as he ran through the plan we’d formulated. “Coordinated attack using the sea stacks for cover, but staying up and out of arrow range?” My suspicion started to rise. He’d guessed that remarkably fast.

“Something like that,” I mumbled.

“You’re too gullible, Hiccup. That’s your problem. I should know. I tricked you plenty of times.” He backed off slightly when Reign’s arms crossed over her chest, her relatively neutral expression switching to a glare.

“Yeah, well, I’m still here,” I shrugged.

The three of us turned to the doorway upon hearing footsteps, most likely all thinking it was Heather. But, instead, we were greeted by Astrid, who was probably just as bad in this moment.

“Hiccup, what did Dagur—“ She took one glance over the scene in front of her, and her gaze narrowed. All of a sudden, she removed her knives from her belt and charged toward Dagur, only to be stopped by Reign grabbing her arm and yanking her back. “So you _are_ a spy!” she growled.

“Relax, blondie,” Dagur scoffed. “I was just trying to talk some sense into the happy couple here.” Astrid rolled her eyes at him, but lowered her weapons and focused her attention on Reign and I instead.

“We can’t let him go now. He’s seen the plans.”

“We know.” Reign pinched the bridge of her nose, silently indicating she was starting to get fed up with all of this.

“Fine. Lock me up. Then go do your mission. But know this, Hiccup. If anything happens to either of my sisters, I will hold you personally responsible.” 

The threat loomed over our heads as Astrid tied Dagur’s wrists together, and the three of us dragged him toward the stables, running into Heather along the way. She was still fuming, but most of her rage appeared to be focused on her brother now, rather than spread out amongst the group. She seemed pretty delighted when we forced Dagur into the pen with Shattermaster and locked the door tight.

“That should hold you.”

“We’ll figure out what to do with you when we get back.” I’d never heard Reign sound this exhausted with one person.

“I have some ideas.” Heather bounced her axe against her hand, completely ignoring the glare her older sister shot her. I figured we’d be able to leave and get on with the mission, but Dagur stepped up, fitting his face between the bars.

“Just one question, Hiccup. Why attack now? Did the number of ships in that shipyard just happen go up?” Reign and I exchanged a questioning glance.

“Uh—yes,” I stuttered. “From eight to twelve.”

“Of course they did!” Dagur screamed, lunging forward. “Because eight ships wasn’t enough to draw you in. Use your brain, Hiccup.”

I was officially fed up. This strike was going to happen, no matter what Dagur said. We couldn’t miss an opportunity like this one.

“I am,” I snapped. “And you know what? It’s telling me not to trust you.”

Overnight, Reign, Heather, Astrid, and I started gathering up supplies for the mission, preparing ourselves for the modified strike. I’d offered to get Fishlegs and Snotlout to help me out, in lieu of the sisters getting some sleep after that pointless recon flight I sent them on, but Heather refused to take no for an answer, and Reign remained completely silent, shaking her head at me if I tried to insist. The entire time, she appeared lost in thought, sometimes putting items into the wrong areas. But, if I tried to get her to talk, she just shrugged it away. It wasn’t until the sun started to rise that she finally spoke, though it wasn’t what was on her mind.

“Dagur couldn’t be right about this mission being too easy, could he?” I asked her, my own thoughts from overnight surfacing.

“We’ve been watching these shipyards for weeks,” she remarked quietly. “We haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary.”

“Dagur is still working for Viggo,” Heather interjected. “He was just trying to keep us from attacking his mater. He’s a liar and a spy.”

I watched as Reign’s face crumpled, devolving into the anger and frustration she’d been holding back against Heather. It looked like she was finally going to say whatever had been bothering her, when frantic clucking from behind us distracted everyone. Chicken was flapping her wings frantically, trying to communicate with Tuffnut.

“What’s that, Chicken?” He listened to her pattern of clucking again. “Dagur has escaped?”

Well, great. That was the last thing we needed right before we were about to leave.

“I told you.”

Our group for the stables, hoping that maybe, there had been some sort of mistake. But, we weren’t afforded that luxury, instead finding the fabric that made up the back of the pen he’d been locked in ripped open, absent of both dragon and rider.

“Shattermaster broke him out,” I groaned. We really needed to change the material that made up the stable walls soon.

“You have to admit, he really bonded with his dragon well,” Reign chuckled. Heather and I looked to her, unamused, and she put her hands up in surrender. “Just saying.”

We had to catch him before he got into the shipyard. With adrenaline pumping, Reign, Heather, and I sprinted out of the stables and jumped up onto our dragons, leading everyone else in the direction of the shipyard. The fog settled and began to thicken the closer we got, but that spurred all of us on to keep going and catch him before it’d be impossible to see.

“Anyone see Dagur?” I called out once we reached the boundaries. “Maybe we beat him here.” Reign shook her head and pointed toward the sea stacks in front of us.

“There he is.”

“Okay, here’s the…”

Before I could finish, Heather rushed into the fog bank, relentlessly pursuing her brother. Reign let out a sigh, dragging her hands down her face, then she flew in after her sister, in a vain attempt to prevent something terrible from happening. None of the rest of us followed at first, unsure of what exactly to do in this scenario. Bright flashes of Windshear’s fire boomed every now and then, but it was when they stopped that I followed them in. Heather and Windshear had landed on a sea stack, the latter panting from some sort of attack, while Reign and Shriek hovered over her head, watching as her brother sputtered closer to the ships.

“What do we do?” she shouted to me.

“Even when he warns them, they’ll still need time to react. We have to hit the shipyard now!”

We’d just emerged through the fog, when the world in front of us lit bright with fire, and arrows were whizzing in the distance. Shocked, I stuck a hand up, preventing the rest of the group from rushing in. If Dagur hadn’t managed to get out ahead, that would’ve been us right now…

“What does he think he’s doing?” Snotlout groaned.

“Proving he was right. That it was a trap all along.”

Dagur and Shattermaster managed to avoid the flaming boulders and dragon root arrows for quite a while, but one man and one dragon could only go for so long. Still, Dagur wasn’t giving up, even when it was clear he’d been beat, and with a triumphant war cry, he charged straight into the feud. Booms and flashes of fire poked through the smoke created, and for a moment, I let myself believe that we would see him come shooting out moments later, but when the smoke and dust cleared, there wasn’t a trace of any Hunter… or Dagur and Shattermaster.

“Come on!” I glanced over to see Reign with tears welling in her eyes. “We have to do something!” She pushed on Shriek’s saddle, trying to get her to dive, but I steered Toothless to cut her off. As much as I hated to think it, she and I both knew there wasn’t a point.

“Reign, don’t,” I whispered. “He’s gone. There’s nothing we can do.”

She refused to move for a moment, hovering her dragon in place, staring down at the reality. There was no body, but no other solution made sense. She was reluctant when she finally turned around, and didn’t speak a word the flight back to the Edge. Grief weighed heavy on us, even as she held onto me, and we had to force ourselves to take down the ships and stacks laid out on our table. Strangely, it felt like the scene functioned as some sort of memorial to him.

“This is my fault. I should’ve listened to him,” I lamented, securing the arm that had been putting objects away back around Reign’s shoulders.

“He knew it was a trap and he still flew right in.” Her voice crackled like gravel, the words just barely managing to escape.

“We never saw him hit the water, so maybe… maybe…” Snotlout’s attempt at optimism fell away.

“Yeah, maybe,” Ruff shrugged, attempting to smile.

“I will never forget his noble sacrifice.”

“You think my brother sacrificed himself?” Heather sneered. “Not with his ego. He thought he could make it.” Reign’s head snapped up from my shoulder suddenly, staring her sister down.

“Heather, are you absolutely incapable of not insulting Dagur for just one minute?” The rest of the group fell completely silent, just staring at her in awe. “Our brother has just died, and you’re still speaking like this. For the love of Thor, have some respect!”

Furious, Heather turned and stalked out of my hut, and the rest of the group soon followed, leaving Reign and I alone in the silence. Neither of us moved for a while, still attempting to process, but eventually, she muttered something about having to lie down, and trudged up the stairs. After a bit longer, I put away the bucket with our pieces, then made my way up toward our sleeping platform. I expected to find her already asleep, but instead, she was sat upright, holding a parchment in her hands, her shoulders jarring violently. I rushed to her side, taking a seat beside her and pulling her close. Before she completely turned her face away from me, she handed me the paper, allowing me to read over the words messily scrawled onto it.

_Reign,_

_If you’re reading this, I guess that’s bad news for me. Sorry, but I couldn’t let Hiccup fly you and Heather into a trap. Tell him that if he really wants to hurt Viggo, hit his next dragon auction. It moves around, but if he turns over enough rocks, some worm will tell him where it is._

_I need to get an apology off my chest. You mentioned earlier how I would terrorize and tease you when you and Dad used to spend time together; I feel terrible about it all. I was jealous of the way he treated you different than Heather and I, but I think I know why. He saw something in you that the two of us didn’t have, and I didn’t understand for so long. He was just trying to prepare you for what you were meant to be,_

_Speaking of Dad, there’s one other thing I need you to know. I didn’t kill him. When he disappeared, I let people believe that, so they would think I was tough enough to be chief. I did a lot of things I’m sorry for, but I couldn’t rest in peace knowing you thought that._

_Be safe._

_Your brother,_

_Dagur._

The bed creaked as I finished reading, and when I looked up again, Reign had already left. My heart began to race, worried about what she might do, so I shot up and race down the stairs, trying to catch her. It took me a moment to find her, but when I did, I relaxed, a small smile spreading onto my face. The rain poured down on Reign and Heather’s heads, soaking them, but they stood there, staring at the horizon and holding each other; two sisters, together in their grief.


	39. Last Auction Heroes (Reign)

**_Well, I suppose to make up for how long the last chapter was, this one is going to be on the much shorter side_ **

**_\- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_ **

I picked at the skin around my nails, peeling off any little pieces that came loose. Nothing went deep enough to draw blood, which was desirable for the time being. The could hold my sword in my left hand again, but the wound there was still healing and needed to be bandaged often, so I could only go so long without splitting the sutures Astrid put there. She’d already had to sew it back up a few times, and I didn’t want to have to go back through that experience a fourth time. I was pretty good when it came to pain tolerance, but the skin on my hand was surprisingly thin, and the needle extremely sharp.

“All right. Out with it.”

I turned my attention to Hiccup, who was hovering on Toothless next to Shriek and I. Clearly, he’d been watching me pick at my hands and mess with the silver pendant laid over my chest for a while, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked. Then again, we’d also been together long enough that he had the startling ability to read me like a children’s book.

“I just don’t understand why we’re relying on Johann to do this,” I huffed, gesturing toward the tavern not far in front of us.

“He was our only option, Reign. None of us could go in there without drawing suspicion, and you know why we need this paper.” He was right, but I wasn’t willing to relent. “Look, I know you don’t trust him, but I need you to put that aside just this one time.”

“My trust in him regardless, he is a terrible option for this. He’s twitchy, he scares easily, and his ability to deliver what we ask hasn’t exactly been the best over the years.” I shook my head, hating this part of the plan the more I thought about it. “I’m just saying, if you or I, or Heather, or Astrid had gone in there wearing a hood, we—“

“—would’ve been recognized immediately,” he interrupted. “All four of us have been face-to-face with pretty much every Dragon Hunter. Not to mention, you and Heather are probably highest on their kill list.”

“If Viggo’s controlling it, I find that unlikely.”

Too far. Hiccup’s expression immediately fell, turning sour. Guilt poked at my heart, so I steered Shriek just a bit closer to Toothless and reached over, running a hand along Hiccup’s arm.

“I’m sorry,” I sighed. “We’re doing this for a good cause. That’s what matters. As long as we get that map and can decipher it, the delivery person is irrelevant.”

“Well, now, don’t go giving up your beliefs just for this mission.” I felt myself blush deep red when he took my hand and pressed a kiss to it gently, right on the bandage. That would’ve been far less cute if that thing was bleeding…

I looked back toward the tavern just in time to see Trader Johann burst through the door, his eyes frantically scanning the limited space in front of him. Hopefully, that meant he’d managed to get his hands on what we needed, and we could get out of here. Hiccup and Toothless dove in to pick Johann up, and the three of us just managed to get away as two Hunters burst through the front door. Once we were out of their earshot, Hiccup turned back to Johann, who was still watching the two men on land in fear.

“You get it, Johann?” He kept his lips sealed shut, trembling at the aggressors shouting at us.

“Johann!” Thankfully, I had snapped him out of it.

“Huh?” His purpose appeared to come back to him, and he reached into his bag, removing a rolled up piece of parchment. “Of course.”

Hiccup and I exchanged smile, and I hovered Shriek closer so that we could get a good look at that map. The area was one we were familiar with, but we never even knew this specific island existed. We must’ve never had a reason to go out that far, or maybe we had, in fact, seen it at some point, but thought nothing of it. After all, if the rumors about Viggo’s secret dragon auctions were true, the place had most likely abandoned until recently.

Dagur had said hitting one of these auctions would be a big ticket, and given that he had been among the Hunters for so long, I trusted it. After all, it was probably a pretty big source of revenue for him, and if we snatched that away, he couldn’t continue to build up his provisions and army. Ultimately, that was the goal. He was no good if his defenses were crippled; despite the jeweled sword he carried on his back, Viggo didn’t appear to be one who knew how to do well in a physical fight.

The clouds had rolled in thick and grey by the time Hiccup, Johann, and I reached the location of the island, allowing us for adequate cover. The voices and sounds of cages scraping gave us a pretty good indication we were in the right place, so Hiccup and I halted our dragons, and he pulled out his spyglass, scanning the land below quite a few times before reporting his findings back to me.

“I see Terrible Terrors and a few crates of Fireworms, but where are they hiding all the big dragons?”

“They’ve probably already been tucked away,” I shrugged, “hidden somewhere. Viggo wouldn’t be stupid enough to spoil the main attractions before the event, as vile as that sounds. We’re going to have to figure out how to get to those ones.”

Having seen all we could for the moment, Hiccup and I turned back and headed to the Edge, gathering everyone else up so we could relay the information. There was a certain giddy excitement buzzing throughout the group, not because of the dragon auction, but rather the realization that we were that much closer to being able to shut this one down.

“The island is far out and pretty remote,” I started. “It’s surrounded by thick cloud cover at the moment, but I don’t think that’s permanent, and there aren’t many trees to obstruct their view.”

“Extra ships on the perimeter. Guards everywhere,” Hiccup continued. “Catapults and watchtowers on the cliffs.”

“Dragon root arrow launchers on every sea stack within half a mile. There’s no way in or out. Period.”

“Hiccup, Reign, think positive,” Tuffnut implored, disrupting our attempts at coming up with a plan.

“And how do you suggest we do that?” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Rapid-fire. Mug, half-empty, or half-full?”

“Definitely empty,” Hiccup and I answered at the same time. We glanced to each other for a second, brows furrowed, before glancing back down at the map, as though it’d somehow magically present us with an answer.

“It is, however, the perfect opportunity to put a big dent in Viggo’s dragon trade,” Hiccup thought aloud. My mind had started to race, putting together the little bits of a plan. Hiccup could no doubt help fill in the little details, but at least it was something.

“But, how?” Astrid inquired.

“Astrid,” Fishlegs laughed, “I’m sure one of them has an idea.” His laughter halted immediately when he realized he couldn’t be sure of what he’d said. “One of you does have an idea, right?”

“Let me get,” Snotlout scoffed. “Cruise right into the place and announce ourselves.” I shook my head, not wanting to even entertain Snotlout’s joke.

“You know, I think we need someone to get in close to Viggo,” I suggested. “Keep him busy while we find the rest of those dragons. Now, it has to be someone Viggo wouldn’t suspect, because he’s never seen him up close.”

I wandered my eyes back to Snotlout, silently imploring the rest of the group to follow. Was he the absolute best choice for this? Absolutely not. But he was literally the only option we had left.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Astrid groaned, her eyes rolling dramatically.

“Wait, no, he’s the only one who was never captured by or pretended to work for Ryker or Viggo. He’s the only one they don’t know,” I rushed to explain.

“He’s the only one who’s clueless enough to pull it off,” Hiccup supported. Hopefully, that meant he was on board.

“Ha. Sounds like a real winner, Hookfang. Right?” That right there perfectly proved Hiccup’s point. “I’d hate to be caught dead with him.” It took him a second, but he realized everyone was looking straight at him. “Wait, what?”

Everything was just starting to come together, when Johann threw an admittedly necessary bola in the plan.

“I hate to be the bearer of most unfortunate news, you both. Unless you are hiding a pile of gold in the crevices of one of your tunics, you won’t see the dragons, let alone bid on them.”

Hiccup jumped in far too quickly for him to have thought his part of this completely through.

“I can take care of that.” He bounced his eyes between Snotlout and I. “Are we up for a trip to Berk?” 

Oh, gods. I knew exactly where this was going, and there was absolutely no way it could end well. I didn’t even see it as worth the shot, but I didn’t want to completely discredit Hiccup immediately. Besides, it really was our only option at this point. Gold that could be spent wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that could just be found in the wild. So, I climbed onto Shriek, and our group, including Johann, headed for Berk, looking for Stoick and Gobber the moment we landed. They both appeared to be in relatively good moods, which maybe would’ve made the persuasion a little easier… if they hadn’t been listening so intently. Hiccup laid down the proposal to them, and both remained silent for a moment, blinking at the two of us before they burst into uproarious laughter.

“Oh, sure. Yeah. Take Berk’s entire cache of gold,” Stoick deadpanned, still laughing.

“Here, take it all.” Gobber removed his wooden leg, hook, and popped out his one gold tooth, causing Stoick’s laughter to die off. His glare moved back to Hiccup and I, completely dead. “Not funny, Hiccup.”

“If you weren’t my son, I’d lock you up right now.” Good thing I wasn’t the one that proposed it, then. “You have no idea what you’re suggesting, Hiccup.”

“Viggo Grimborn is the most ruthless Viking we’ve come into contact with. If we don’t do something to disrupt this auction, Viggo will make so much gold, he’ll be able to buy an armada of dragon-hunting ships and reinforce his empire. No dragon will be safe, and eventually, he will set his sights on Berk. And on our dragons.”

Stoick’s eyes wandered back to Skullcrusher, who had managed to sleep through this entire exchange. It was strange to think that just five years ago, that sort of argument wouldn’t have worked on him—it wouldn’t have even been an option. But, now, the way his hardened face softened told me not only could we use that, but it had worked.

“Well?” Hiccup, looked up at his father, surprised.

“’Well’ what?”

“Well, son, I’m assuming you and Reign didn’t fly all the way here without a plan.”

There was a chance Stoick was going to think we were insane again, but for the time being, we’d hopefully be able to get him to listen. Hiccup and I led him and Gobber to the former Academy, where the rest of the team was helping Snotlout get ready, while I explained the plan.

“Hm. A special envoy, you say?”

“Exactly,” I confirmed. At the moment, he couldn’t see it was Snotlout behind that changing board, so we were in the clear.

“Going into the auction under an assumed identity. Well, he’s gonna have to be smart, crafty, quick on his feet, and most importantly—“

Snotlout emerged from behind the board, donned up in a blonde wig underneath his helmet. Glass painted to look like jewels had been secured to the belt that held up his yellow tunic, and pebbles turned yellow arched across the tip of his boot. Maybe it was a bit gaudy, but I had absolutely no control over this part, so it made complete sense for Snotlout.

“—Not Snotlout!”

Already deeply in character, Snotlout stepped forward with his head held high and proud in the air and clapped his hands together, clearly trying to summon over one of us. When no one responded to him, because to us, he was still Snotlout, he clapped them again, and when the same results were yielded, he just turned to the twins, fists clenched.

“I’m clapping. When I clap, that means you two servants serve me!” Fishlegs had to give them an extra shove, but they finally started his boots, putting the finishing touches on the details.

Stoick started to turn away, but in a move bolder than I normally had the courage for, I grabbed onto his arm and turned him back to face me.

“Now, before you shoot this down, and by the way, you have every reason in the entire archipelago that you should, there is a method to my—“

“Madness?” he finished, hands planted on his hips.

“Yes.” I took in a deep breath, preparing for my next set of words. “I know I may have absolutely no ground to ask, but I need you to trust me on this, Stoick. Hopefully, it’ll be mostly foolproof.” He took another glance at Snotlout.

“’Fool,’ maybe. ‘Proof?’ Not quite with you on that.”

I glanced to Hiccup, silently begging for help. I already felt like I’d overstepped my bounds with his father, and I feared what any more pushing would do. Given our plans for the future, I wanted to stay on Stoick’s good side. Hiccup, on the other hand, appeared to have no such restraint. He averted his gaze to his father, keeping his eyes sternly locked on Stoick’s.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that, son.” Hiccup remained unrelenting, and impressively, Stoick’s shoulders slumped, defeated. “Fine, on one condition. You have to have Gobber go with you to make sure the gold comes back.”

We could work with that.

“Absolutely.”

Hiccup and I assembled the last few remaining pieces, and though I wasn’t entirely happy with who I was forced to rely on, it was our best shot. That seemed to be the theme of today: our best ideas also involved some of our worst people. Not to mention, the darkness and cramped quarters didn’t exactly create the ideal environment. The fact that Johann had a compartment underneath his storage that was completely empty and had a secret entrance definitely didn’t make me trust him more, but it was at least ideal for this situation.

Any voices above the floorboards came out muffled, but we could still tell whose was whose once we arrived. We’d come to know the three above our heads a little too well. All of us, pushed up against each other, stared up with baited breath, hearing the floorboards creak slowly and the light between slats linearly get blocked out. More voices from above, and then finally, the person we presumed to be Viggo turned to leave.

The floorboard beneath his foot creaked, and our hearts stopped. The single slat of wood above our heads bent, dipping closer to our discovery. A rushed, muffled voice attempted to explain as my hand slid into Hiccup’s, trembling.

Silence, before a single gold coin clattered onto the wood below us, just barely missing our skin. The voices echoed again, then, finally, footsteps started to fade away.

_CRASH!_

I just barely managed to dart out of the way as a foot came shooting through the board, sending down a beam of bright light. Beady, hazel eyes scanned over the space bathed in darkness thanks to a last-minute cover from Toothless. He lingered for far too long, taking in every minute detail before he took purposeful steps off the ship. The scraping over cages being moved was the last hurdle, and once they had disappeared, Trader Johann popped his head down in through the hole.

“Master Hiccup? The Hunters have left.”

Hiccup and Toothless made their way up first, helping everyone else onto the upper deck. The rest of our group went to go check out the rows of dragon cages Hiccup had seen earlier, while the two of us booked it for the Hunter tents, keeping to the shadows and behind bushes to ensure we wouldn’t be spotted. I could still feel my heart thundering against my chest, my hands trembling like volcanoes about to erupt, the panic and chaos overwhelming my mind until I felt a hand on my back. Apparently, my worry was evident externally as well.

Several groups of Hunters passed by our hiding spot, shouting and laughing about topics that sounded so… normal. Sometimes, it was tough to remember that these Hunters were still people, when they committed and contributed to such in human acts. Hearing them talk about families, and the weather, and plans for once the auction was over tainted the completely normal conversations.

I was drawn out of my thoughts by Hiccup tapping my side. When I looked over at him, he nodded toward the tent, bringing my attention to Gobber and Snotlout, who were now being ushered out of Ryker and two Hunters. Gobber lingered for just a moment longer, dropping something behind him without any of the others around him noticing. The two of us remained crouched behind the bush, waiting for the area to clear before we sprinted through, snatching up the scroll and sliding behind the makeshift building. Once we were certain we were invisible, Hiccup unrolled the parchment, revealing the complete list of the big dragons being hidden away underground. We exchanged a little smile, filled with hope, then snuck our way down to the containment areas.

Dragons squawked and growled at us when we approached their pens, clearly believing we were Hunters.

“Hey, hey, shh…” Hiccup coaxed, sticking a hand out to a Nadder through the bars. “We’re going to get you out of here. We just need you to work with us.” I’d already started looking for some sort of release switch, but remained cautions. After what happened last time someone flipped a switch in a place like this, I wasn’t eager to launch into anything.

“Find anything babe?” I asked, subconsciously drumming my fingers against the pendant of my necklace.

“Not yet,” he sighed. “I don’t think these bars release, but I don’t know how we’re supposed to take them off.” I made my way over to his side and rested my elbow against his shoulder, running my eyes over the connections between the bars and the stone.

“There has to be some way to get them loose.” I began to bite down on my thumb nail. “I mean, the Hunters don’t just will these dragons into there. If there’s a way they get them in, there’s a way for us to get them out.”

We wouldn’t get that chance. Just down the corridor, faint voices echoed, gruff and low. Hiccup and I immediately snapped our heads over toward the source of the noise, separating and preparing to defend ourselves. I was pretty grateful, in that moment, that I learned to fight with my shield with my other hand, and Toothless crouched low to the ground, already readying a plasma blast.

“Toothless, make ‘em count.”

However, our defenses immediately dropped when two Hunters stepped out in front, hands clamped over Astrid’s and Heather’s mouths, the two girls’ hands bound in front of them. Instinctually, I stepped forward when the Hunter holding my sister shoved her forward, catching her shoulders to ensure she wouldn’t fall.

“Sorry, guys,” she muttered, sounding embarrassed.

“It’s okay, Heather,” I assured her.

Three more Hunters approached from behind Hiccup and I, one holding a muzzle for Toothless. I felt so degraded as one of them just grabbed onto my arms and shoved Hiccup, Heather, Astrid, and I into a free cell, followed by the rest of our group. I desperately wanted to reach through the bars, swipe at them and pull on their clothes until they set us free, but instead, I just gave in, allowing them to slam the door on us; it took everything in me to push that desire down when none other than Viggo himself stepped forward, smirking at his momentary triumph.

“Assuming this is all Berk’s gold, I’m guessing that Berk will take quite the hit on its bottom line. That is most unfortunate,” he taunted. “But please know that it is all going to a wonderful cause. As are your dragons.” My blood boiled fire-hot as two Hunters wheeled Toothless out, muzzled and tied down to carts.

“Toothless!” Hiccup cried.

I couldn’t help it. I slammed my shoulder against the bars, desperately hoping that would somehow pop the door back open. But, instead, I was just left with soreness.

“This one will fetch a considerable price.” Viggo gestured toward Toothless, reveling in the despair he was causing all of us. “Almost a pity to sell him. But I’ll get over it. If you’re good, I may even let you watch.”

Hiccup pressed himself against the door of the cell as Viggo wheeled our beloved dragons away, striking a deep hurt in my heart. Partially because I needed support and partially because I wanted to offer it to him, I gently touched his shoulder. He flinched, then glanced back at me, offering a small smile before placing his hand over my own.

“Hiccup, we have to get out of here and stop them from selling our dragons.” Fishlegs’ fists clenched tightly.

“We will, Fishlegs,” Hiccup affirmed.

“How?”

“This guy’s killing me,” Ruffnut groaned.

“Oh, I’m killing you?” Fishlegs snarled.

My head fell into my hands when Snotlout charged at the bars, pounding on them and demanding to be let out. Clearly, he was still in character, despite the fact we’d been found out—something Gobber pointed out to him. He never broke out of his mindset, but at least relaxed from the shouting, allowing Hiccup and I the ability to think.

“Hey, Gobber, what do you think these walls are made of?” Before Gobber got the chance to answer Hiccup’s question, Tuffnut charged at the wall, slamming his body against the material.

“It feels like iron ore,” he stated confidently. “It’s tough to run through.”

“You should try it again.” Ruffnut smirked darkly at her twin.

“You think so?”

“Yes.” With her prompt, Tuff rushed head-first into the wall again, completely sprawling out on the floor this time.

“Definitely iron ore,” he wheezed.

That didn’t help us. We were completely surrounded by metals, meaning conventional means of escape completely flew out the window. The dragons had already been almost completely cleared out, meaning we couldn’t rely on training one of them from across the room, something Viggo no doubt would have predicted, and our weapons were useless. Even if Hiccup had brought the flaming sword he made, the amount of Zippleback gas one of those canisters held wouldn’t be enough to create a large enough explosion.

“I’ve got something!” Interestingly enough, that declaration came from Gobber. “Just let me take care of everything.”

I had so much confidence in whatever he was planning… until he started throwing the small rocks loose on the bottom of the cell at the guards. Even when they started laughing and jeering at Gobber, he refused to give up, chucking the little pebbles in a way that almost appeared to create a trail. He’d thrown down quite a few, and while the Hunters were still taunting him, Gobber paused and looked out toward one of twisting corridors, muttering something to himself. After achingly slow moments of waiting had passed, large dragon came lumbering around the corner, its nose raised high in the air, following the scent of the rocks.

“Oh, it’s Grump,” one of the Hunters scoffed. “Come on.”

“Oh, no! It’s the fat, lazy dragon.”

They clearly didn’t see much in Grump’s capabilities, but Gobber had other plans.

“Help me, Grump,” he begged quietly. “Please? Please, Grump?”

Upon hearing Gobber’s voice, Grump’s pupils turned to slits suddenly, and he dropped low to the ground, growling ferociously at the Hunters. The two standing guard tensed and began to back up slowly, attempting to calm Grump and coax him back into a state of relaxation, but the damage had been done.

“That’s it, Grump. Get them!”

Grump spat out a single ball of fire, then whipped around in a circle furiously, knocking one of the Hunters against the wall. The other one got tossed into the air by the dragon’s nose, then batter to the iron ore, making him meet the same fate as the first. All of that was enough to make my jaw fall, but then, Grump clamped his teeth around the bars of the cell door and just pulled them clean off, like they were nothing. I hoped Gobber was thinking of bringing that dragon back with him, because Grump could be _extremely_ useful—not to mention, he had a pretty good protective instinct.

“All right, gang. Let’s get the rest of these dragons out.”

Grump effortlessly removed the rest of the doors, and with a bit of urging and coaxing, the few dragons remaining below flew out the caves, hopefully heading straight for freedom. The moment the last one rounded the corner, we all went sprinting out of the caves ourselves, emerging to find the glorious chaos of cages knocked over and fires on the grass. The Hunters appeared to have all fled, leaving us a clear shot to our dragons. We would just have to make sure Grump was within earshot, so we could get them out of the cages. Completely unflinching, the nine of us ran through a line of fire, looking around at the maze of cages ahead.

“Everyone, to your dragons,” Hiccup ordered. “Check the decks of the ships that are leaving.”

“We’ll find them, Hiccup,” Fishlegs smiled, which caused the twins to start clapping.

“I like the attitude, Fishlegs.” Just before everyone broke off, I grabbed onto Hiccup’s hand and yanked him close to me.

“You go find your dragon, and you get Berk’s gold. But _don’t_ do anything stupid. Remember we can’t just take Viggo down in one moment.” He smiled at me, then grabbed onto the back of my neck, pulling our lips together. “What was that for?” He shrugged as he started to run away.

“Heat of the moment!”

I shook my head, laughing to myself before I broke away from the group, searching high and low for Shriek. Of course, it didn’t matter which cage I came across—I still let the dragons go. Some of the locks were feeble enough to be broken with my shield, but others required Grump’s attention. The poor dragon looked a bit tired with all the flying around, so if I ever needed him, I threw him a couple rocks to eat before he took off. I’d nearly reached the end of the rows of cages, my hope dwindling quickly, when I yanked the tarp off one of the last ones and found my purple Thunderdrum, whose eyes instantly lit up when she saw me.

“Shriek!” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank the gods. Don’t worry, girl. We’re getting out of here.”

I whistled for Grump, making sure to feed him after he pulled the door off Shriek’s cage, then the two of us took off for the ships leaving the dock, blasting holes with fireballs and breaking down masts with sonic booms. Any and all dragons below deck were freed, and with the help of the rest of our group, we cleared them out in no time fast. That just left the one ship out in the middle of the ocean, which Hiccup and Toothless were hovering above. I watched the two of them carefully, my hands tensed around Shriek’s saddle.

My heart stopped dead in my chest as I watched Viggo chuck something over the side of the boat—most likely the chest of Berk’s gold—and Hiccup and Toothless dove in after them. I didn’t care about going after Viggo and his men, I just wanted Hiccup to resurface again. At this point, he’d been down there for too long; there was no way he could hold his breath for that amount of time. I pushed on Shriek’s saddle, forcing her down toward the water, and the two of us dove under, snatching Hiccup up in her talons. The chest in his hands weighed the two of us down quite a bit, but Shriek managed to push through and get back up into the air, while Fishlegs and Meatlug grabbed Toothless. Frantic, I glanced down at him, and when he smiled back up at me, my heart rate started to go back down. Dragon and rider were reunited, and Fishlegs set the chest down on Meatlug’s back. That just left one variable unaccounted for…

“Where’s Gobber?” Hiccup pulled out his spyglass, looking toward the island.

“He was fighting Ryker, but I don’t see him.” I blinked at him, reeling a little from that bomb.

“I’m sorry, he was _what_?” Before Hiccup got the chance to answer, Snotlout straightened up and cried out.

“There! My valet!”

From through the smoke and flames, Gobber came flying out, riding comfortably on the back of Grump.

“Where’s Ryker?” Hiccup sounded a bit shocked.

“Turned tail after old Gobber taught him a thing or two.” Gobber held his hook hand up triumphantly, only to find that the attachment had gone missing. It took him a second to realize it, but when he did, he grinned sheepishly and tucked the limb away behind his back. “He might have gotten in a few moves on his own.”

“Uh, Hiccup?”

I turned my attention to Hiccup and Fishlegs, my eyes widening. He had the chest open on Meatlug’s back, but what he passed to Hiccup wasn’t gold; the entire supply of coins had been replaced by rocks.

“He switched the chests on me.” Under any other circumstances, I would’ve urged him to just let this one go, but this was Berk’s gold. They kind of needed that.

“Well, let’s go get him.”

“He’s long gone,” Hiccup sighed.

“That’s a ‘chest half-empty’ point of view, Hiccup.” I glared at the twins and swiped my fingers against my throat, trying to get them to knock it off immediately.

“Tuff, the chest isn’t half-empty,” Hiccup argued. “It’s totally empty. Of all of Berk’s gold.”

I felt myself beginning to wallow as well, when a group of dragon stragglers flew past me, heading toward the horizon. Despite the circumstances, I smiled.

“It was worth it, Hiccup.” I drew his attention toward the dragons. “Look at all the dragons we saved.” He watched them fly away as well, but his expression never changed.

“I just hope my dad feels the same way.”

I sighed, trying to think of some way to help make this a little better for him, when Gobber flew up to Fishlegs and took the chest from his hands.

“I’ll take the heat from Stoick, Hiccup,” he assured him. “And we’ll get that gold back.” I raised an eyebrow at him as he tossed one of the rocks into Grump’s mouth. “What? We shouldn’t let it go to waste. Besides, this guy needs to eat. Constantly.”

Viggo could have this victory for now. Maybe it would take more than the eight of us on the Edge, but in the end, a few lost battles would get us to win the war.


	40. Defenders of the Wing, Pt. 1 (Hiccup)

**_Okay, I’m gonna skip over the Hunter raid at the beginning, just because it’s so short._ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - - -_ **

The thrill of a raid still coursed through me when our group of Riders landed back on the Edge, tending to their dragons. We’d managed to free every single dragon the Hunters had taken captive, and destroyed all their ships in that fleet in the process. Sure, it couldn’t replace finding Berk’s gold, which we still couldn’t track down even weeks later, but at least there were more dragons that wouldn’t be forced into worse fates than death.

Of course, not every raid went off without a hitch. Though I didn’t really have an update on the other Riders, Fishlegs and Meatlug had gotten grabbed by a chain with a dragon-proof winch, forcing Toothless and I to blast the deck at the last second. We’d managed to rescue them, but any later and they would’ve been captured. Feeling a little guilty it had taken so long, I approached Fishlegs and Meatlug.

“How’s she doing?” I asked. Meatlug was panting, but at least didn’t appear to be injured.

“You know, her feelings are hurt.” Fishlegs shook his head at me. “You guys were cutting it a bit too close. Minor wing sprain, but she’ll be fine.”

I was about to apologize to Fishlegs, when I caught movement behind him. Heather had her older sister’s hand in her own, squeezing tight as the latter limped across the arena. Reign was clearly trying to hide her pain, but whatever happened was crippling her severely.

“Are you limping?” Reign flashed her panicked gaze over to me for a second.

“No,” she answered shortly.

“She got shot in the leg.” Reign glared at Heather, silently yelling at her for blowing her cover. However, I was grateful for it—not that Reign had been shot, of course.

“What?” Imbibed with concern, I rushed to her side, standing straight across from her and staring her down.

“A Hunter arrow was gonna hit Shriek, so I blocked it,” she shrugged, trying to treat this like something casual.

“With your leg.”

“It just grazed me. I’m fine.” She tried to put some weight onto the leg, but her face immediately crumpled in pain and she collapsed onto me a bit, forcing me to reach out and catch her.

“All right, has anyone else been hurt recently? Who didn’t tell me?” 

I had expected maybe Heather and Astrid to raise their hands, but instead, the entire group stuck their hands in the air. We’d been on quite a few raids, recently, more than there were members of our team—which most likely meant everyone had been hurt on multiple occasions. I shook my head as it lowered into my hand.

“Oh, gods,” I muttered.

“We all know the risks, Hiccup.” Heather spoke as though that would just make everything instantly better.

“And let’s not forget we freed a couple dozen dragons this week,” Astrid piped up.

“Okay, guys, new rule. From now on—“

When I stuck my hand up, something pushed down on it. At first, I thought maybe it was Reign, but when I glanced over, I was instead greeted by a Terrible Terror. I feared it was a note from Berk, more specifically, my dad, but when I unrolled the scroll attached to the little dragon’s leg, I was greeted with something _far_ worse.

“What is it?” I tried my best to drown out the twins as they peered over my shoulders. “Lots of big words? Need me to take a look at it? Yeah, big words are my thing. Or, should I say, my thingy.”

“Talk to us, Hiccup,” Reign urged, her green eyes staring holes into me.

“It’s from Viggo,” I informed everyone. “He wants to meet.”

Before anyone got the chance to ask questions, I climbed onto Toothless’ back and headed for my hut, snatching up my map and taking it to the clubhouse. Strangely, the others were already waiting there for me, expectantly watching as I set the map onto the table and circled the particular island Viggo had designated.

“He picked a spot in the middle of nowhere,” Reign observed, her eyes running over the map. “Nice, long flight to tire out your dragon.”

“Trap,” Snotlout spat. “That’s definitely a trap.” I figured that from the start, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to go anyways.

“Hiccup, he just wants you out there alone so his men can ambush you,” Astrid sighed. I shook my head.

“No, that’s not his style,” I denied.

“Hiccup’s right. Viggo likes to out-think his opponents,” Heather affirmed.

“And that’s his weakness.” A dark glower fell over Reign’s face, momentarily startling me.

“Unless he actually out-thinks you. Which sounds like a strength to me.” She directed that glare over to Tuffnut, who jumped back a little. Following in suit, his sister stuck her fist up, socking him in the face. “Ow! Oh, like you weren’t thinking it, too.”

“Of course I was, but I wasn’t saying it out loud.” How reassuring.

“Sorry if my thinking comes out of my mouth. The things I think, I say out loud.”

“Letting Hiccup know how overmatched he is isn’t going to help his obvious lack of confidence.”

“Only he can find the confidence within himself. Which he’s now lacking. He needs to go to a seminar.” Reign slammed her fist onto the table, starling everyone.

“Will you two shut up?” she growled. I picked my face back up from the palm of my hand, trying to move on from all of that.

“Viggo will come after us, whether I meet him or not. I’m going.”

“Not alone, you aren’t,” Reign asserted. I turned to her, already prepared to shut down the idea, but she cut me off before I got the chance. “I’m coming with you to find out whatever he wants. That’s not an option, and I’m pretty sure he knows that. Plus, we’ll need eyes up in the air, in case someone comes sneaking up on us, so we’ll bring Astrid and Heather.”

“Reign, he—“ She held the note up in the air, waving it around.

“Never said anything about you coming alone. We’ve got a loophole to exploit.” She turned her attention to the members of the group she hadn’t already listed. “The rest of you will need to be on the alert. I wouldn’t be surprised if Viggo used this as a diversionary tactic. We’ll set up the provisions tonight so that they’re ready by morning. He’s not getting the best of us this time.”

Per Reign’s instructions, everyone set up the walls, catapults, and jars of Nightmare gel, and assigned the remaining members of the group to watch towers that covered the whole Edge; she made it pretty clear that everyone was to remain alert at all times, focusing specifically on the twins, and when morning came, the four of us left, leaving the others to protect our home.

As I had expected, when we arrived at the island, Viggo had an extra ship waiting, most likely primed with Hunters. However, he himself was on the actual island, stood dead in the center of the peak.

“There’s Viggo,” Heather pointed out. Something about the ground around him didn’t look right, but other than that, it was just him.

“No place near him for men to hide,” Astrid added.

“He’d be pretty easy to pick off from here.” Reign held her hand up toward her sister, discouraging her from acting on that.

“No, no. We’re gonna see what he has to say. Keep an eye on that ship.”

Reign and I moved our dragons in to land, keeping our eyes glued to Viggo. The area we had to land suddenly became extremely limited when the two of us got in close and realized what those strange dots on the grass were.

“Blue Oleander!” We managed to yank our dragons back in time, steering them over to a clear patch and leaving them there. “You stay here, bud. If he makes a move, you know what to do—both of you.”

We approached from behind Viggo, Reign setting a cautionary hand on the hilt of her sword. If he heard us coming, he refused to acknowledge our presences until I approached the Maces and Talons board he had laid out in front of him, setting down the Viking King and the Ally that were strung out on the grass. I hated holding that latter piece in my hands, knowing that Viggo truly thought that lowly of her, despite his words. I wasn’t sure she knew this, but I heard her speech to him, about who she believed she was. Granted, the Viking Queen was not a piece, mainly due to old-age sexism, but I thought it suited her perfectly. After all, she invented it just for her; who knew her better than herself?

“I think you’re missing some pieces.” Viggo smirked at the two of us as we rounded to the other side of the table.

“You came,” he drawled. “I’m surprised.”

“No, you’re not,” I scoffed. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be sitting in a field of flowers that are poisonous to dragons.”

“A man has to take precautions,” Viggo shrugged. “I noticed you arrived with friends.”

“Hiccup and I lead together. I told you that,” Reign growled. “That includes any and all meetings and negotiations.”

“You, I expected. Though, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve noticed you tend to drag your sister into things.” I firmly gripped Reign’s wrist, keeping her from yanking out her weapon. We couldn’t risk this going south

“Like you said, ‘precautions,’” I dismissed. “Look, what do you want, Viggo?”

“To compliment you.” Well, that I wasn’t expecting. “Your little group has had some impressive victories recently. Put quite the dent in my bottom line.” Momentarily, I felt anger rush through me, recalling those same words he had used to taunt us when he stole Berk’s gold.

“Glad to hear it,” Reign deadpanned, shifting her weight onto one leg.

“You are worthy opponents. And, as such, this battle between us could continue for years to come. I would think you two have future plans that scenario might complicate.”

“That’s not your business,” I spat. Viggo shrugged his shoulders, returning his focus to the game board.

“Or… it could end today.” I leaned back slightly, smirking at him.

“We accept your surrender.” Viggo’s laughter came out bitter and forced.

“Oh, it’s good to see your sense of humor is still intact. But I am offering a truce. With very generous terms.”

With one swipe, Viggo brushed away all of the game pieces, making room for him to slam down a large map. Right down the center, he’d drawn a bright red line, separating northern and southern islands. On one side of the line, I could see the Edge, and I hoped all was calm there at the moment.

“You stay south of this line. And my men and I will stay above it. We never have to fight again.” He made it sound so simple, but the mere thought of all the dragons he could capture down there was enough to keep my mouth shut. “Hiccup, I’m not unreasonable. I have no desire to rule the world, like… some people. I’m a businessman, and fighting is bad for business.”

There was still one factor in this negotiation he hadn’t mentioned.

“What about the Dragon Eye?” I inquired.

“I’m afraid that’s not part of the deal.” Figures. “I’m offering you the chance to save the life of every dragon below this line, not to mention, those of your fellow Riders. I am willing to memorialize this deal now and end the bloodshed.” Viggo reached into one of the pouches on his belt, removing a charcoal pencil and signing his name in the bottom corner of the map. “Are you?”

Something wasn’t right about this. Viggo was the one to draw that line, without any input from the other side, meaning there had to be something over there he wanted so badly to himself. Whatever it was, we had to give this further consideration—not that I was really planning on signing, anyways. And I’m sure Reign was thinking the exact same thing. I glanced to her, waiting for her input, and she very subtly shook her head, her lips tightening into a firm line.

“We’ll need to think about it,” I declared.

“Of course, of course. All leaders should receive counsel. But, in the end, it’s up to us, isn’t it?” Reign reached forward and rolled up the map, gripping it tight in her hands. “Oh, how’s your leg, Reign? Healing well, I trust?” She flashed him an emotionless smile.

“Still strong enough to drop-kick someone if I really wanted to.” She allowed her threat to linger as the two of us turned around. 

“Time is of the essence. Peace can be such a fragile thing.”

Reign, Heather, Astrid, and I remained silent the entire flight back, my brain trying to sort out any possible scenario that could arise from this. Was he storing Berk’s gold over that line? Most likely. His base was out in that direction. There could be more powerful dragons out there. The islands we had explored that far up just had Nadders and Terrors and the like, but they were just as important. Not to mention there were plenty of land masses we had yet to explore. The placement of Viggo’s line irked me. Sure, it went literally right down the middle of the paper, but it was so purposeful.

Thankfully, everyone was still wide-awake at their posts when we returned. Fishlegs said that nothing suspicious ever appeared, which further confused me. Viggo, missing a chance to attack? That seemed unlikely. But I didn’t have time to contemplate it. Reign gathered up the group and brought everyone to the clubhouse, explaining Viggo’s terms after I laid down the map so they all could get a look. While they were occupied with that, Reign and I made our way over to the Maces and Talons board in the corner of the clubhouse, staring at the pieces we had laid down. Occasionally, our eyes would drift up to each other, or we’d mutter something as one of us moved a piece around, but our strategizing remained mostly internal.

“A truce?” Astrid laughed sarcastically. “You have to be joking.”

“This is a very serious-looking map,” Fishlegs observed.

“You’re not actually thinking of doing this, are you, guys?” Both of us remained silent, focused on the board. “Uh, hey, you two? The map is over here.”

“Yeah. But the answers are over here,” I responded shortly. “You see, Viggo’s a game player. His moves are never what they seem to be.”

“Unless, he knows that you know he’s a game player. Then the deceptive move is to make the obvious move.”

“But, he’s also smart enough to know that Hiccup and Reign know that Viggo knows that Hiccup and Reign know that he’s a game player. So the deceptive move is actually to make the deceptive move.” Though their wording was confusing, the twins made a good point.

“But, if Viggo is that smart, then he will know that Hiccup and Reign are smart enough to know that Viggo is smart enough to know that Hiccup is Viggo.”

…And, we lost it.

“No, wait. What were we talking about again?” I heard Astrid groan in annoyance.

“Guys, would one of you please tell us what you’re thinking?” Reign lifted her head up to look at the group.

“Viggo doesn’t want a true,” she explained. “What he really wants is to keep us away from something on his side of the board.” It was good to know we were on the same page.

“You might be right, but where do we find this thing?” I pushed myself up from my stool and made my way over to the map.

“I think we can assume that Viggo wouldn’t give up any more territory than he has to. So, whatever he wants to keep us away from is going to be on the edge of the line.” I placed my finger on the small drawing that was literally pressed against the red line. “Here. This is where we start.”

Everyone else was ready to go, but Reign remained staring at the Maces and Talons board, her eyes still running vigorously over the pieces as she muttered to herself.

“Reign?” She flashed her gaze up to me for just a brief second before she signed and pushed herself up. “What’s bothering you?” She tapped her index finger against the pendant of her necklace, clearly contemplating how to put her thoughts into words.

“Viggo let you take that map so easily,” she finally sighed. “He let you leave his sight with that thing to think it over. Any other leader would’ve forced you to make a decision on the spot, but not him. Why?”

I didn’t really have an answer at the moment. She was already trying to out-think Viggo, when we didn’t quite have all the information pulled together, but maybe that was necessary.

“Let’s just hope we don’t find out.” I placed my hands on her arms and leaned forward, kissing the top of her head. “For now, we should focus on that island.” Reign didn’t seem all that convinced, but still walked with me over to our dragons so we could all make our way to our destination.

The clouds were painted a soft pink by the time the volcanic island came into view. Dark plumes of smoke rose up from the gaping crater at the very edge of the land, while a small village on the opposite end appeared relatively lifeless.

“There it is.”

“There’s a village in a clearing to the west,” Reign pointed out, for those that had missed it. I reached into my bag and removed the spyglass in there, getting a closer look at where people should be residing. Though there were plenty of buildings, that wasn’t what stuck out to me; instead, it was the stone statue sticking up above the line of trees.

“Strange-looking buildings,” I remarked. “Not Viking or Hunter. And check out that statue. Fishlegs, can you make out what kind of dragon that’s supposed to be?” Fishlegs removed his Dragon Cards from the front of his belt, flipping through them completely before turning to me and shrugging.

“Looks like a Boulder class to me. But not one I’ve seen before.”

“Let’s go ask ‘em.” Without thinking, Snotlout and Hookfang rushed forward, only stopped when Reign called out to them.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Snotlout pulled on Hookfang’s horns, stopping the pair short. “We don’t know if they’re friend or foe. Let’s do a little surveillance first. “

“Reign has a point.” I scanned my eyes over the terrain, spotting a good place for cover nearby. “We’ll land over in that forest and then try to move in for a closer look.”

Once we landed, we decided it would be best to leave our dragons behind. Given how remote this island appeared to be, there could be a chance they weren’t really used to having dragons around them… or, worse, they could try and hurt them if we brought them too close. I trusted Toothless and Shriek enough to protect the others, so it was a little less nerve-wracking leaving them behind. All of us kept on the alert as we made our way through the woods, but it was strangely quiet.

“That village doesn’t look like much,” Reign remarked. “Why wouldn’t Viggo want us to find it?”

“I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “I’m just happy to be one step ahead for a change.”

We hadn’t been walking for too long, when there was a loud ‘clang’ behind us, causing Reign and I to whip around. I expected to see that maybe Snotlout had fallen, or the twins were fighting again, but instead… everyone had disappeared. All that remained was Heather’s axe.

“I, uh… I have a bad feeling.” I heard Reign’s breath catch in her throat.

“You want a worse feeling?” she trembled. “Look up.”

Just ahead up us, perched in the tree branches, stood three people, completely dressed in black with their faces covered, their eyes trained straight on the two of us. I tensed, getting the inkling that they knew where the rest of our group went.

“Reign…”

Suddenly, they raised three ornate reeds to their lips, blowing harshly into them. Reign reached out, managing to grab onto whatever they were shooting at us. I was able to glance down just long enough to see they were darts, before pain struck my shoulder, and I felt my limbs instantly grow heavy, forcing my eyes closed.

Voices around me groaned and griped as I forced my eyes open, fighting the grogginess that still weight heavy on me. I tried to push myself to stand, but when I moved my hands, they remained completely still, and I could feel rope bound around my wrists.

“What the…”

Of course, that wasn’t the worst part. All of us had been tied up, forced to kneel in a circle, and we now had a large group of those people we had seen earlier surrounding us, their glares remaining unflinching and, I think, unblinking.

“Who are these guys?” Snotlout whispered, squirming under the scrutiny.

“And what are they feeding our dragons?”

Fishlegs’ words snapped my attention over to one of the masked people, who was offering some strange, greenish-yellow food to Toothless and Meatlug, who downed them without a second thought.

“I don’t know.” I pushed myself to my feet, allowing me to see a man without a mask moving closer to us. “But I think we’re about to find out.”

He eyed all of us like a dragon, stalking around his prey a few times before finally stopping dead in front of me. I held my head high, refusing to break eye contact with him even as he leered at me.

“I am Throk,” he announced, his voice cutting through the air. I opened my mouth to respond, hoping he could maybe be reasoned with, but he suddenly grabbed onto my head and pushed me back down onto my knees, completely directing his focus away from me once that had been done.

“Hey--!” I nudged Reign gently, trying to keep her from doing something that could get us in more trouble.

“All hail, Mala, Queen Defender of the Wing.”

My brows furrowed. Defender of the Wing? That somehow still made it hard to tell what side of this fight they were on.

I wouldn’t have much of a chance to contemplate it, however. All of the masked people and Throk bowed their heads down, revealing a tall woman, shoulders pushed back and hands clasped behind her, moving with authority that demanded respect. She looked like the sort of person meant to hold power, every detail of her clothing just ornate enough, and her hair cut short. She paused in front of us for a good while, eyes running over our group of eight as though she somehow already had each of us figured out.

“So, these are the Dragon Hunters your men captured, Throk?”

Whoa, what? They thought _we_ were Hunters?

“Yes, my Queen.”

“Hunters? Us?” Astrid scoffed. “You gotta be kidding.”

“We do not hunt dragons,” I insisted. Queen Mala’s expression remained unchanging.

“Do you take me for a fool?” she barked. “You were sent by Viggo Grimborn to attack us and steal the Great Protector.” None of what she was saying made any sense.

“You couldn’t be more wrong.” Even Reign sounded desperate.

“Yeah, why would we steal a statue? To pose like it for long periods of time?” At least the twins’ demeanor hadn’t changed.

“Silence, girl.” I heard Reign snicker beside me as Queen Mala snapped at Tuffnut.

“What?” he gasped. “She’s the girl.”

“A lot of people make that mistake when they first meet us.”

This wasn’t at all important.

“Look, we don’t know who you are, or who ‘the Great Protector’ is, but if you’re enemies of Viggo Grimborn, then we have something in common,” I stated.

“Exactly what the last spy sent by Grimborn said.” Part of me feared, after the way she’d just brushed me off, that person maybe hadn’t been a spy, either. After all, we weren’t the only group of people out there that rode dragons.

“We don’t hurt dragons. We honor and respect them.” Queen Mala rolled her eyes at Reign’s insistence.

“So you say, but you shackle them and make them do your bidding.” That certainly put a dent in our argument, even if it wasn’t the truth.

“Those are just saddles,” I clarified. “We ride dragons.”

“Not anymore, you don’t. Your dragons are now free.”

She looked to one of her people, who held some of our dragons’ saddles in one hand, attempting to shoo Toothless, Shriek, Meatlug, and Hookfang with the other. But, as I would’ve hoped, they remained where we were, staring at the masked person in front of them with confusion.

“Go! Be burdened no more.” Even with Mala’s order, the dragons stayed in place.

“See? Our dragons are loyal to us,” Astrid smiled.

“Especially you, Hookfang. Way to go, buddy!” Hookfang took one glance at his rider, then flapped his wings to start flying away, only brought back down to the ground by the other three dragons around him growling.

“Okay, if we’re Dragon Hunters, then why won’t our dragons leave now that you’ve ‘freed’ them? How do you explain that?” Reign challenged, one of her eyebrows arching toward her hair.

“Is it not obvious? They no longer think for themselves. But we will change that. And you will pay for your crimes against dragons.” Reign sneered as Mala got in close to her face, neither of them flinching. “Take them away, Throk. Prepare for a royal trial.”

I pushed down every urge in me to fight back as all of us were grabbed by our arms and forced into a cell, which was pretty much a large hole in the ground covered by a heavy, metal grate. The bonds were undone from our wrists, but our weapons and shields were confiscated as well. However, I wasn’t planning on fighting back against them. There was really only one way to approach this that wouldn’t make things worse.

The rest of the group wasn’t thinking the same way. As soon as the guards and Throk left the pit, Reign and Heather climbed onto Ruff and Tuff’s shoulders, getting a look around at the situation above us.

“I’ll take the guard on the left,” Reign whispered to her sister.

“I’ll take the one on the right. The rest of you, head straight for the dragons while we hold off the others. Once you get in the air—” They’d coordinated a plan pretty quickly, but I couldn’t let them go through with it.

“Just hold on a second. We’re not going anywhere.” I tried my best to fight the glare the sisters threw me.

“We’re not?” Reign asked, incredulous.

“These Defenders of the Wing clearly love dragons just like we do. And the way they fight, they could be great allies against Viggo,” I reasoned.

“Except for the fact that they think we work for Viggo!” Snotlout shouted.

“Which is just a misunderstanding.”

“That I would prefer to clear up from the backs of our dragons.”

“If we shoot our way out of here, they’re never gonna trust us.”

“Actually, I’m okay with that,” Ruff shrugged, jostling Heather a little bit.

“I also second the motion,” her brother affirmed. “That is a motion, right?” Reign kneed him in the back of the head, silencing him.

“Look, Viggo was willing to give up a lot to keep us away from this island. I think it’s because he knows these people can help us defeat him. But first, we have to earn their trust.” Reign kicked Tuff out from beneath her and jumped down, standing in front of me.

“By standing trial?” she demanded.

“For being Dragon Hunters? Why not? We’re innocent, aren’t we?” Thankfully, that seemed to convince her, and a few members of our group.

“Perhaps the truth will set us free,” Fishlegs smiled.

“What if we used the insanity defense?” Tuffnut suggested.

“That would only work for you,” his sister countered. Definitely would be a good idea to make them sit this one out…

“We can do this.” Reign still didn’t seem all that convinced, but she at least relented for the time being.

“All right, Hiccup,” she sighed. “I hope you’re right about this.” I reached forward and took her hand, holding it in an attempt for comfort.

“Me, too.”

It wasn’t much long after that Throk and some of these ‘Defenders of the Wing’ came to fetch us, holding our hands behind our backs until we reached our destination. Even so, I managed to shift my arms just enough to reach out and touch Reign’s hand again, keeping close to her until the two of us were forced apart. Mala sat high on a throne made out of rocks, ornately carved to look like a dragon; Throk stood firm beside her, and every member of their tribe surrounded us, discouraging anyone from trying anything.

“You stand accused of being Dragon Hunters, subjugators of dragons,” Mala declared, staring down at all of us. “Do you deny this?” Reign and I stepped up in front of everyone else.

“Yes.”

“But you admit that you force the dragons to carry you on their backs?” The way she smirked indicated she was enjoying this.

“We don’t force them,” Reign shot back.

“And that you used them to land secretly on our island.”

“Yes,” I admitted. “But you make it sound worse than it was.”

“So, you weren’t caught by my men sneaking toward our village?” Beside me, I heard Reign grunt in annoyance.

“’Sneaking’ is a strong word.” I spoke up quickly, preventing her from using harsher language.

“And you didn’t come heavily armed?”

“Those are for self-defense,” Reign groaned, her face falling into her palm.

“Oh, so you came here expecting a fight?” That caused her head to snap right back up, glaring at Mala as she caught on to what the queen was attempting to do.

“No, you’re twisting our words,” she accused. I was just about to step in and try and reason with Mala, when Tuffnut pushed the two of us aside, causing me to panic.

“Tuffnut Thorston, attorney at thingies,” he introduced, extending his hands out in front of Reign’s and my faces to silence us from protesting. “For the defense, your Queen-ness. Did we sneak onto your island? Perhaps. Did I eat a coconut?”

“Maybe,” I heard Ruff shout from behind us. When did he have time to do that?

“But, since when is sneaking around on someone else’s property without permission a trespass?” I sighed, exasperated.

“For the record, this person does not represent us,” Reign corrected.

“Not at all,” Tuff shrugged. “And maybe we do make the dragons do whatever we say and go wherever we go and want to go, whenever we want, and they carry us on our backs, and we obviously keep them in cages, and… But does that mean that we ‘subjugate’ them?”

“Subjugate them we do not!” Ruff argued.

“Yeah, that’s kind of what it means,” Astrid groaned. Tuff looked back at her, shocked.

“It is? That’s terrible. Why do we do that?”

“Tuff, I’m begging you, enough.” He didn’t listen to me, continuing down the path of our destruction.

“And take our leader, Hiccup Haddock the Third. A man who shot down Toothless and crippled him so that he could only fly with Hiccup, subjugating him… Did I use ‘subjugating’ right? I rest my case, Your Honor.”

Then, something flashed over Reign’s face, and she stepped forward, smiling a little at me before she spoke up.

“Look, Tuffnut makes everything sound worse than it is. That tends to happen when you don’t have a full brain.” She momentarily glared back at him. “There was a time when the people of Berk used to fight dragons, yes. And, yes, Hiccup did shoot down Toothless, but after that, he changed. He realized that dragons could be gentle, loving creatures, and despite all the beliefs of his family and the rest of his island, he befriended dragons. And, he taught the rest of us to as well. Hiccup has such compassion and love for dragons, no doubt the same that you all do.” My heart thumped in my chest when she turned her gaze to me again. “It’s… one of the things that made me fall in love with him. And yes, we ride dragons, because they allow us to.”

Reign took a deep breath, her eyes falling downward momentarily before she looked to Mala and Throk with determination.

“But, if you’re going to insist on finding someone guilty and imprisoning them for the rest of their lives, or whatever your punishment is on this island, it should be me.”

What? What? No, no, no…

“I helped fight dragons when I was younger. The rest of these guys just put out the fires they caused. I’ve forced a Skrill to hurt people, and I had family with affiliations with the Hunters. So, if there’s anyone you want, it’s me. The rest of these guys have never done anything to deserve this.”

As Mala and Throk spoke amongst themselves, I rushed to Reign’s side, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to face me.

“Reign, what are you doing?” I demanded, desperate to convince her to take it back. But, instead, she reached up and squeezed my hands.

“You go find Viggo, with these guys’ help, and you take those Hunters down once and for all.” I wanted to retort, but Mala spoke up, silencing the both of us.

“We are moved by your passion and willingness to sacrifice yourself, Reign. Just one question. If your friends are as innocent as you claim, why do they have a map written in Viggo’s hand and carrying his signature?”

Internally, I gasped. No matter what I tried to say to Mala here, there was absolutely no way she’d believe us. The evidence looked too black-and-white.

“I find you all guilty,” she declared. “And I sentence you to the same fate that befalls all Dragon Hunters, the Nest!”

The Defenders of the Wing cheered as we were dragged down into a cave system, serving as the chants condemning us to our fate. They had kept our hands free, and Reign slowly crept hers into mine, refusing to let go as we descended into the depths.

“So, you still think we can be allies with these guys?” There was something about her voice that almost made it sound as though she was laughing.

“Actually, I do,” I asserted, confident in my decision.

“Hey, this is no time for optimism,” Snotlout hissed.

“Hiccup, we need to make a break for it,” Heather piled on. “Soon!”

“All right, hear me out,” I implored, silencing everyone. “They’re taking us to ‘the Nest,’ right? The Nest of…”

“Dragons, I assume.” Reign diverted her eyes up to the Gronckles just hanging around above us.

“Right. So, when they toss me in this nest, instead of getting eaten, I’m gonna train those dragons and prove once and for all that we aren’t Dragon Hunters.” It was reckless, sure, but I knew I could do it.

“You really think you can do that?” Astrid sounded wary of the answer.

“I’m betting my life on it.”

“You’re betting _all_ our lives on it,” Reign snapped. “I don’t like that bet, Hiccup.”

“Reign, it’s the only one we have. Besides, you offered yourself up for imprisonment. I feel like this isn’t nearly as bad.” She huffed, but fell silent. All of us bumped against each other as the Defenders brought us to a halt, forcing us to look to Mala.

“We protect the dragons as they protect us. We accept the judgement of the dragons as they have accepted us. Step forward and receive that judgement.” Without thinking, I offered myself up.

“I’m the leader. I’ll go first.” Throk shoved me forward, closer to the edge. “Hiccup.” I cast my glace back to see Reign, already aggressively twirling the pendant of her necklace. “Good luck.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assured her.

“So, he can train any dragon?” I heard Heather ask her sister.

“Except for a few. Whispering Deaths, Changewings…”

I gasped as I looked down into the Nest. The dragons down below were nothing but green blurs, sprinting in circles around the edges before they approached where I stood, roaring at me.

“…and Speed Stingers.”

Before I was really given the chance to re-think my decision, I felt a hand shove me into the Nest, forcing me to come face-to-face with the vicious, ornery dragons.

“Hiccup!” Reign’s cry ripped through her throat, and I watched as she ran over to where I was, thrashing and kicking as Throk trapped her between him and his weapon. “You let me go, now!”

“I’m okay!” I called up to her. “So far.”

One of the Speed Stingers stopped not far in front of me, cocking its head curiously. This one appeared to be less aggressive than the others, which meant he might be the one I could tame. Given their pack mentality, if one of them trusted me, the rest would soon follow. So, I crept my way closer to him, one hand outstretched in front of me.

“Hey, come on, little guy, we can be friends. Let’s show them how we can—“ Just before I got within touching distance of the Speed Stinger, it growled and slashed its tail at me, just narrowly missing my leg. “Whoa! Whoa!”

That prompted the rest of the Stingers to come rushing at me, swiping their tails and roaring. They darted back and forth between each other, creating green blurs that were difficult to distinguish. With no other means of defense around, I was forced to reach for the bones littering the ground, each snapping when they were struck. The particular force of one hit knocked me down, and the panic of it all kept me from being able to find my footing. Three Stingers closed in, roaring and thrashing their tails.

And then, suddenly, a black blur shot down, planting itself firm between myself and the Speed Stingers. Flooded with relief, I managed to get to my feet as Toothless batted away one of the dragons that dared to lunge at him, frightening the other two to the point where they sprinted back into the darkness. Toothless let out a victorious roar, declaring himself the winner, then nuzzled into my hands, assuring me everything was fine. The two of us shot back up from the Nest, standing bravely before Mala and Throk despite the weapons in our directions. This spurred the others on, and in one swift move, Reign, Heather, Astrid, and Ruffnut snatched the Defender guards’ spears, turning the weapons on them.

We finally had them.

“Surrender!” Mala ordered, though her voice wavered slightly.

“Yeah, I’m thinking, ‘no,’” Reign smirked.

“Mala, you need to ask yourself, would these dragons risk their lives to protect us if we were Hunters?” Her eyes fell away from me, the question breaking down every defense she had put up against us. Throk, however, wasn’t as easy to let up, inching ever-closer to me with his axe raised.

“Give the order, my Queen, and I shall obey.” It came off more as a threat to me than a reminder to Mala.

“You said you accept the judgement of the dragons. Well, accept the judgement of our dragons. We are not the enemy.” I stuck my hands up in surrender, trying to further emphasize my point. Mala’s eyes met with mine a moment, then her posture relaxed ever-so-slightly.

“Stand down.” That certainly wasn’t the order Throk would’ve been expecting. He lowered his axe and blinked at Mala, baffled.

“My Queen—“

“The dragon judged him innocent, Throk. Release him. Release them all.” Despite our earlier conflict, I felt nothing but respect for her as the two of us nodded toward each other.

“Thank you.” A tiny, little smile crossed Mala’s face.

“You are a mystery, Hiccup Haddock.” And, just like that, all that warmth dried up. “But know this. If you are not what you claim to be or if you betray us in any way, I will end you myself, dragon or not.”

“Fair enough,” I shrugged.

For the moment, Mala and the Defenders backed off, and when I slid off Toothless, Reign took large strides in my direction, throwing down the spear in her hands. She remained just inches from me for a solid minute, her face frozen somewhere in between anger and relief.

“See? I told you it would work.” I chuckled nervously, unsure of what she would do.

The silence remained, until she lunged at me suddenly, hastily pressing her lips against mine. I flinched a second, but once I processed that she wasn’t trying to hurt me, I pulled her closer, resting my cheek against hers once she pushed away a bit. For the moment, we were safe, and alive.

“The Queen would like to give you a tour of the island, as a sign of peace.” Reign and I jumped, her eyes wide as she stared at Throk. Had he… just been standing there, watching us?

“Uh, um…” I cleared my throat, one hand unconsciously scratching the back of my head. “That would be wonderful.”

I kept an arm around Reign’s waist as our group walked through the Defenders of the Wings’ home island, listening intently to every piece of history and current important information she had to offer us. The sun had begun to set by the time we made it back to the large stone structure in the middle of their village.

“That is the Temple of the Wing.” Mala gestured toward the place where we had stood trial not long ago. “And next to it is our healing center where both man and dragon can be treated.” My eyes widened a little, very much impressed.

“You can heal dragons?” Fishlegs gasped, pointing to the wooden building.

“For some injuries, yes.” The way she smiled at all of us know truly showed that all had been forgiven.

“Maybe we can show you some of the things that we’ve learned.” Mala reached down to the dirt by her feet, picking up one of those greenish-yellow food items we’d seen the Defenders feeding our dragons earlier.

“We call it Sagefruit,” she revealed, holding it out in front of her. “It calms even the most aggressive dragons. Makes them easier to handle.” I turned my attention to Toothless, who just sat and purred at the complete stranger in front of him. Now it made sense.

“That explains why the dragons have been so docile.” I reached out my free hand to pet the top of his head, smiling.

“And yet, when you were in danger, he ignored its effects. That was very impressive.”

“Well, Toothless is no ordinary dragon,” Reign laughed.

“You do have a connection with him, Hiccup Haddock,” Mala mused. “I do not understand it, but I cannot deny it.”

An idea popped into my head, one that always worked. Well, maybe not _always_ , but it certainly had gone well on multiple occasions… At least one occasion. One occasion that I could remember. And, granted, it was about five years ago at this point, and I was secretly in love with the girl, but hey, it could be a peace treaty sort of thing, too… right?

Regardless, I pulled on the stirrup connected to Toothless’ red tail fin, fanning it out a bit.

“Well, maybe if we took you for a ride?”

Strangely, Mala looked to the large dragon statue towering over her village, intently locked onto it.

“No,” she eventually muttered. “Such a thing is forbidden,”

I shrugged, deciding not to push it with these people. Whatever their customs and rules were, I didn’t want to push it any more than we already had.

“Uh, Your Majesty, what dragon is this?” Fishlegs tried to keep his voice relatively calm, but I’d come to recognize the bubbling curiosity threatening to spill forth.

“That is our Great Protector.” She beamed with pride at the large statue, wandering a bit closer to it. “The Eruptadon. He eats lava from the volcano to keep us safe. If not for him, all of this would burn to the ground.” I had to admit, this mutually beneficial relationship they’d built with this dragon was impressive.

“Eats lava? Awesome!” Tuffnut cried. “We should hook it up with Meatlug. You know, she pukes lava. He might be into that kind of thing.”

Fishlegs had already whipped out one of his notebooks, furiously scribbling all the information that he had just been fed. I watched as a smile stretched onto Reign’s face at the realization she would have a new drawing to put into the Book of Dragons sometime soon.

However, all the excitement and contentment faded away as Snotlout chuckled angrily, pointing up toward the volcano that loomed over everything, casting its shadow down onto the wooden homes below.

“I think your Great Protector is asleep on the job.”

Much to everyone’s horror, the plumes of black smoke had increased significantly, and a bright orange glow could be seen just above the gaping crater that held the lava, meaning it was beginning to bubble over. Mala gasped, her hand flying over her mouth momentarily.

“That should not be.”

“Let us check it out for you,” I offered, knowing we had the fastest means of transport. “We can be there in just a few—“

“No, Hiccup Haddock,” she interjected. “While you are here, I ask you to respect our ways. You may come with us on foot.”

It wasn’t exactly an efficient method, but what other choice did we have? The eight of us followed close behind Mala and Throk, as well as a few other Defenders of the Wing, allowing them to lead the way up the side of the volcano. For the most part, the path was completely clear, if not a bit warmer it should have been, but when we reached a clearing, the damage was evident. The lava moved slow, but burned up anything that dared to stand in its way quick as lightning, which somehow didn’t impede its progress in the process.

“The Great Protector has never let the lava get this far.”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation,” Reign assured her.

Not wasting time, Mala turned to her people and spat out orders, preparing for the event that the lava got too close to the village. Once she at least felt safe enough with that, she continued to lead the rest of us up to the volcano’s crater, which they called the Den of the Great Protector. My eyes wandered down to the pots of flowers, foods, and ornate items laid down along the last stretch of the path. Clearly, they were offerings—something Heather confirmed when she marveled at them. We had just reached a threshold, when Mala’s steps tripped up momentarily.

“There should be guards here,” she remarked.

When she broke out into a run, the rest of us took to doing the same, emerging in the Den only to find it completely empty. If the Eruptadon was meant to be here, we had a major problem on our hands. But, when I asked Mala if it was possible he’d just gone somewhere else, she denied it, stating that the Eruptadon never left its place. If that were the case, then there could only be one explanation…

“Hiccup?” Reign held up an arrow, the tip dipped in a bright, all-too-familiar green, confirming my theory. “Dragon Hunters.” I took the projectile from her hands, running my eyes over it as the realization of what we’d unintentionally done dawned on me. “And it’s fresh. I think the Hunters took the Eruptadon.”

It was far worse than just that.

“Viggo. He wasn’t trying to keep us from finding this island. He was leading us here. To use as a diversion so that he could steal their dragon. How did I fall for that?”

“Hey, as your attorney, I tried to warn you.” For a split second, when Reign glared at Tuffnut, I swore she was going to run him through with her sword.

“I knew this was all too easy,” Reign growled. “Gods, if I had just thought a little faster.”

Mala’s expression darkened suddenly as she picked up another arrow, holding it so tight in her fist that her knuckles drained of any color.

“So, you were just a distraction after all.” I flinched when she looked up at me again. “I was actually almost beginning to believe you.” The arrow in her hands snapped clean in half, increasing my desperation.

“No, this isn’t what you think,” I insisted. But, it was too late. Other Defenders had already surrounded the others, and Reign was currently staring down Throk, both holding their grounds firm, while Mala swiped her hand out at me.

“Silence, Hiccup Haddock,” she shouted, her rage spilling over. “You’ve served your master well. Without the Eruptadon to protect us, the fate of my village is sealed. But so is yours.”

“Mala—“

“I warned you what would happen if I found out you were lying to me.” There was an odd reassurance when Reign’s back pressed against my own. “Your people are going to die for what they’ve done.”

My breath caught in my throat as Mala removed her sword from its sheath against her back, pointing the curved, perfectly polished, and extremely well-sharpened blade straight down at me, aimed right at my throat.

“But first, Hiccup… I’m going to kill you myself.”

**_To Be Continued…_ **


	41. (A/N): The Latter Half

Hello my lovely readers!

First off, I want to apologize if you’ve said anything to me this weekend and I haven’t responded. Yesterday, I hunkered down and pretty much shut out all distractions to finish, and today, I took the day off and just did whatever. But, I did periodically log on and like comments.

Now, I’m sure you’re all anxious for what comes next because, at least in my opinion, the latter 3 seasons of RTTE are the best. And while I’m excited for what’s to come as well, we likely will not be seeing any activity on this story for a good while. My semester starts tomorrow, and not only am I taking 1 less than the maximum amount of credits, but I’m going to be doing virtual English tutoring for children of refugee families (which I’m super excited for!), and will most likely be out of my house on weekends so that potential buyers can come see it. I’m predicting that we won’t see Seasons 4-6 until the summer. 

I am asking for you all to please be patient. I would highly discourage anyone from asking how far I am, or if I’ve started the next section and whatnot. Please, just wait until you see the update. It WILL happen, just not for a long while. This upcoming section will take a long while in particular, because I want to make sure the sensory experience of “Blindsided” is well done, so I will be taking my time with it and not attempting to write it all in one day. 

Thank you all once again for all your wonderful support, and I will see you when I see you!

-Firewhisperer13


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